EDUCATION IN PRINTMAKING Notes on the Nature of Learning in a Creative Medium Marcia Morse Handprints are still visible in the making a visual record of the lands documentation- all of which bore subdued light of prehistoric caves. and people discovered, as weU as direct relation to various programs Man has been a printmaker as long illustrating various aspects of in education. as he has been a maker of signs their cultures. A period of activity in and images. Much time has elapsed Prints also played an important part printmaking more characterized by between the accidental discovery in the earliest program of education aesthetic concerns began in 1928 with of the possibility of the print and established by the missionaries. There the founding of the organization, the thoughtful repetition of the act. were, first, the small primers and Honolulu Printmakers. Here too, While the most concentrated and other books which gave Hawaii a however, the desire to educate people continuous period of printmaking written fonn for the first time. These about prints as an art fonn was of begins in fifteenth-century Europe, were printed in the Islands, many of concern in a number of ways. Among those precursors remind us that them on a small letterpress still in use the founding members were Hue printed images are among the oldest for demonstrations at the Mission Mazelet Luquiens, later involved in documents of human history. They Houses Museum in Honolulu. These the establishment of the University of remind us also of some of the very were occasionally illustrated with Hawaii's art department, and John fundamental qualities inherent in the small woodcuts traceable to other Kelly. Both Luquiens and Kelly medium-ritual, repetition, and sources-alphabet books or religious conveyed their Jove for the Islands reliable and creative communication. tracts printed elsewhere. Prints aided through their work: Luquiens in his education in an even more significant landscapes and Kelly in his graceful Printmaking in Hawaii: way when a print shop was set up as portrait studies. The organization An Overview a school for young Hawaiian men at which they, and others, supported in The early history of the Hawaiian Lahainaluna, Maui. Intaglio prints, its early years found its first home at Islands is bound up with several the history of which still needs com­ the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The significant uses of various print prehensive documentation, were Academy continued to nurture the media. Hawaii first became known drawn a:nd printed by the students at printmakers until the early 1960s, to a broad public through documenta­ the school under very primitive when the organization became tion of the voyages of Captain James conditions. Despite these difficulties, independent. Much of the early Cook. An important part of the the Lahainaluna prints provided history of Honolulu Printmakers is published accounts of the journeys missionary teachers with, among not well documented, but it is evident of exploration took the fonn of other things, some excellent maps that as the oldest artists' organization prints-engravings made after the which remain among the most in the state, and the second oldest in drawings of the artists who traveled important items in Hawaiian the United States, it fulfilled a very with Cook with the specific task of cartography. It is evident that post-contact history of the Islands was much enhanced by graphic 24 A NIGHT DANCE BY WOMEN IN HAPAEE Wcb..r, mcJ 177!1 important function not only in While the kind of education and collectors through galleries. Among supporting the art of the fine print, opportunities for work for island the local artists working primarily in but also in providing a focus for the printmakers is fundamentally sound, this medium, two very distinctive growing community of island artists the area of viewer or buyer education ones merit attention. Wong Ching in general. The series of gift prints is one which needs improvement. uses a very contemporary approach to commissioned by the organization Doubts remain about print media, the woodblock tradition in his large, each year as a part of its membership terminology and processes in the multicolor prints. These often in­ benefits provide a visual history of minds of the general public which volve a combination of printing and changing styles and concerns in print makes it, at times, unreceptive to assemblage, with an imagery tending media as well as the changing face of prints as art, and, al other times, in the direction of abstraction. island history and art. The group easily exploited by hard-sell mar­ Recently, the linoleum block prints continues lo remain a major focus for keting programs for art multiples. of Dietrich Varez have become widely island printmakers, providing Occasional articles about prints aimed appreciated. Varez, whose large, opportunities for exhibition and at educating the viewer and potential single-color prints explore the specialized work. collector are most useful. Recent rhythms and patterns of Hawaiian The other formal outlets for island legislation requiring ethical docu­ culture, is truly an artist-for-the­ printmakers are the printmaking mentation of multiple originals is also people. His prints are sold very programs at the Honolulul Academy an important step in the direction of inexpensively and are not bound by of Arts, University of Hawaii at treating both the medium and its what he feels to be the arbitrary Manoa, and University of Hawaii at public with the respect and care constraints of limited t!ditions. Varez Hilo. Additional opportunities they deserve. has been responsible for opening up exist at the community-college level. All four major printmaking media the world of prints to many viewers Printmakers who complete their work are being actively explored and who previously found no easy avenue at any of these institutions, or who supported. Relief, or block, printing of approach. are working independently, are still has for some years been included Intaglio printmaking-etching, faced with the problem of finding a in both elementary and secondary engraving, drypoint, and aquatint well-equipped studio in which to school art curricula-due to the -remains the most popular form of work. No open community workshop modest demands it makes for space printmaking in the Islands, based on exists at the present time, although and equipment. Hawaii also draws enrollment and on tht! number of various attempts have been made to on the more refined tradition of the artists who continue to work even establish and maintain one. Despite Japanese woodblock print. The outside a formal class situation. It the difficult logistics, printmaking Academy of Arts possesses one of was the medium favored by the early activity remains vital, and quality, the finest collections of 11kiyo-c in the printmakers in Honolulu, such as high. world, and contemporary works in the same tradition are also available to 2S Luquiens and Kelly, and remains required. The name which continues prints with a combination of today the medium most fully explored to remain closely linked with the photographic images and skillfully in all its richness and variety. Perhaps art is Jean Charlot. Although Charlot controlled blending of color. Barbara because of its inherent complexities, it worked with all print media, Engle, painter and jeweler as well remains an esoteric medium in the lithography was his preferred as printmaker, has developed a very minds of many viewers, though this medium, perfectly suited to the distinctive imagery of abstract has not precluded active collecting. artist's intentions. He worked first geometrics and patterns which fully While there are many artists working in traditional stone lithography and utilizes the special qualities of texture, in this medium who deserve mention, later, with his long-time collaborator transparency and clarity of edge three in particular serve to illustrate Lynton Kistler, explored the use of made possible in this medium. the breadth of vision and expression offset lithography as an art medium, Printmaking in the Islands, then, is of which the medium is capable. and by doing so was instrumental in in a splendid state of health as far as Lee Chesney, professor of art at the expanding its potential. Charlot's individual work is concerned. It is University of Hawaii at Manoa, involvement with print media occasionally limited by a lack of employs a variety of processes in stemmed from a deep-rooted belief continuity for artists who move etching and engraving as well as in the accessibility of art. The beyond "student" status and have no printing to achieve the rich fields of multiplicity of prints was a quality access to the necessary L>quipment color and texture in his abstract and that affirmed this belief. and facilities. It also suffers occa­ evocative prints. Chesney works in Screen printing is another popular sionally through a misunderstanding true interaction with his materials, medium in the Islands, though few of its nature and activity. giving them a great amount of professional artists have developed it expressive autonomy. As a teacher, as a sophisticated and subtle means of Leaming From Prints: Chesney has a very positive influence artistic expression. Its uses remain, Speculations on the on a generation of younger print­ for thP most part, commercial. Among Structure of makers. Among the works of that the artists using the medium, a couple Knowledge in Printmaking younger generation, the photo­ deserve particular mention. Allyn An understanding of the way etchings of John Takami Morita have Bromley, faculty member at Leeward printmaking is taught and learned, an unusual depth and power. Morita, Community College, develops her in addition to an appreciation of its whose prints document the lives of a San Francisco family he has known for some years, has achieved a highly-resolved blending of the photographic and hand-drawn imagery.