The late 1990s witnessed a renaissance of graphic art in Britain. This exhibition featured the best of that work and demonstrated the extraordinary thematic and technical diversity which made this new British printmaking so distinctive and vital.
Selected from the Center’s latest acquisitions of prints, the exhibition also included some of the most innovative artists’ books produced at that time. At the center of the exhibition was a group of portfolios, or suites, of prints, several commissioned by the published Paragon Press, the subject of a 1996 exhibition at the Center. Showcasing a wide range of themes and techniques, and investigating issues of artistic, personal, and cultural identity which preoccupied British artists during this period, the exhibition included work by Peter Doig, Langlands & Bell, Ian McKeever, and Hughie O’Donoghue. The Sensation generation of young British artists was represented by two suites of screenprints, Gary Hume’s Portraits, and Screen, a group portfolio by video artists such as Gillian Wearing, Darren Almond, Mat Collishaw, Sam Taylor-Wood, Georgina Starr, and Dinos and Jake Chapman.
View works from the collection included in this exhibition here.
Credits
Graphic! British Prints Now was organized by Gillian Forrester, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Center.