When we talk about visual art, the most popular ones that pop up are painting and sculpture. But there is another major art form that is being overlooked specially in Davao City, it is printmaking.
The idea of printmaking is to transfer images from a matrix onto a different medium, most commonly used are paper and cloth.
Traditional printmaking methods include lithography, woodcut, etching, and engraving, while contemporary artists have added screenprinting to the repertoire of methods.
Printmaking has a rich history. Most people may envision traditional printing when discussing this kind of art form.
According to Tribeca Printworks, the earliest example of printmaking, a woodblock print on silk, dated sometime during the Han Dynasty and is believed to have been created around 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. The seventh century saw the creation of the first print on paper. The matrix in the first iteration of printing was a little wooden board.
For many years until today, art particularly painting and sculpture, were introduced to the wealthy and royalties, however, printmaking allowed the democratization of art and culture and the spread of new ideas.
The recent art exhibit “Nature in Print” at the visitors’ center of Azuela Cove aims to showcase the beauty of printmaking.
The said exhibit displayed the works from the Printmaking Workshop by Bahaysining and Art de Triomphe facilitated by Janos Dela Cruz and curated by Rodney P. Yap.
Dela Cruz upskilled the participants’ types of printmaking including wood cutting, chine collee, monotyping, and drypoint.
“The idea is everyday panibagong art method ang natutunan ng mga participants. I am surprised sa participation ng mga local artists kasi they were very enthusiastic in learning the methods,” he said in an interview.
Dela Cruz said Mindanao does not fall behind when it comes to printmaking because it has a very rich culture of carving.
“I find it surprising kasi here in Mindanao it has a very rich culture of carving. Kung saan nag-uukit at the same time naglilimbag,” he said.
He was also grateful that the Dabawenyo participants were very receptive to learning something new that is something really old.
“Usually people always think of it as a printout or Xerox or a reproduction or something that came out in the computer,” he said.
Printmaking also gave artists a method to replicate work rather than starting from scratch and allowed them to utilize their ideas and minds more.
“I love printmaking because it is an old technique but at the same time you can apply it to new ideas that you can spread to more people. Unlike other art forms that have intrinsic value, ang printmaking has the advantage of creating art multiples and we don’t call it reproduction or xerox or duplicate, we call it art multiple,” Dela Cruz said.
Printmaking is also a process that is being used by artists to express an art piece, as well as many other things.
“From the time that we conceptualized an artwork, to the time that we put it on paper, to the time we put it on a wood on a rubber on a plexiglass or a metal, to the time that we inked it, process it and print it, up until to the time that we signed it, hindi iniwanan ng artist yun. So, there is nothing mechanical or technological na hindi connected sa artist. Every step is from the mind, blood and sweat and the effort nandoon yung artist every step of the way,” Dela Cruz said.
Speaking of art exhibits, Azuela Cove is among the ideal art exhibition spaces in Davao City. It houses Galerie Raphael, which displays artwork in a variety of settings to appreciative art lovers in Davao City.
