Title

The screenprint in Australia.

Author

Butler, Roger.

Source

The screenprint. Canberra: Australian National Gallery, 1983.

Publication date

1983

Type

Exhibition catalogue essay

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

The Screenprint in Australia
The technique of screenprinting was first used commercially in Australia in the late 1920s. By the early 1930s it had become a popular process.

Advertisements in 1932 portrayed it as progressive and adaptable 'to the production of showcards, posters, transfers, lampshades, calendars, novelties, signs on wood, glass and iron'. Screenprinting outfits 'complete with all necessary instructions' were available from three pounds and the Commercial Arts Studios in Melbourne offered instruction in the technique.

Although many Australian printmakers and painters worked as commercial artists during this period and must have been aware of the new technique, none used it to produce 'fine art' prints. Presumably they identified it with 'low’ art.

Artists' adoption of screenprinting in Australia developed from its use in textile printing. In Melbourne in August 1937 Frances Burke and Morris Holloway, two graduates from the Melbourne Technical College, founded Burway Prints, the first registered textile screenprinting workshop in Australia. Two years later in Sydney, Claudio Alcorso established the firm Silk and Textile Printers of Australia which was to involve many printers in screenprinted fabric design. Margaret Preston, Russell Drysdale and many other artists contributed designs for their 'Modernage' fabrics released in 1947.

Ethleen Palmer, a printmaker best known for her Japanese style linocuts in the 1930s, had gained a working knowledge of screenprinting by 1944. In December of that year she gave a radio talk for the Australian Broadcasting Commission explaining 'An easy method of printing Christmas cards and calendars'. All of her screenprints (she called them serigraphs after the American example) date from 1949 or later and rarely transcend their craft origin. In October 1949 she exhibited 'serigraphs' at Grosvenor Galleries, Sydney, jointly with Margaret Oppen who showed printed fabrics.

The first screenprints that owe more to fine art than to craft traditions are those produced by Alan Sumner in Melbourne between 1945 and 1951 under the guidance of Jack Rule, a commercial artist and printer. Equipment for amateur screenprinters that had been available in the 1930s was no longer obtainable and Sumner made all his own screens, inks and stopout varnishes. His screenprints were exhibited in most Australian States and were relatively popular, his 'Christmas morning' of 1948 selling out completely.

Margaret Preston also explored the technique. An article she published in the Society of Artists Book 1946-7 gave practical instructions on how to make a screen, squeegee and mix ink as well as describing the 'Profilm', cut paper stencil and lacquer stopout methods. She illustrated the article with three of her own screenprints which unfortunately cannot now be traced. Preston's brief flirtation with screenprinting led her back to the simple stencil and she made an exciting series of gouache stencils in the early 1950s.

Of the other early practitioners of screenprinting, mention must be made of Raymond Glass, an American who worked in Melbourne in the early 1950s and exhibited a number of Mexican-influenced screenprints before returning to America. Ray Crooke also produced screenprints from the early 1950s after studying textile printing as part of his commercial art training at the Swinburne Technical College. The medium was used by few other artists during these post-war years.

Renewed interest in the technique was stimulated in April 1958 when Jim Hays gave a lecture-demonstration of screenprinting to the Contemporary Art Society in Sydney. Among those who attended were Henry Salkauskas, who later produced a bold group of painterly screenprints before giving up printmaking in 1965. His gestural images display possibilities for the screenprint that is rarely associated with it. John and Barbara Coburn also attended the 1958 lecture, Barbara Coburn later becoming a master printer, editioning works for her husband and other artists.

Hard Edge painters of the 1960s, such as Alun Leach-Jones and Sydney Ball, exploited screenprinting's ability to create precise areas of flat colour. Their decorative prints, mostly executed in Melbourne, made the medium widely popular. At this time most art schools added screenprinting departments to their print workshops.

From Pop Art and its figurative offshoots developed a new generation of screenprinters. Handcut stencils, tusche and glue methods increasingly gave way to photographic stencils. Political and community groups recognized the potential of screenprinting to produce cheap posters, and in 1973 Colin Little formed the Earthworks Poster Collective at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Their posters of highly sophisticated images and professional technique are among the most dynamic prints produced in Australia in the 1970s.

Screenprinting during the early 1980s has seen a return to simpler forms of stencil making, hand and photographic work often being combined. Collectives such as Redback Graphix of Wollongong continue the political use of poster making; other artists maintain screenprinting as a traditional, limited edition technique and a few artists such as Julia Church produce screenprints which cross these boundaries. Her prints are produced in unlimited editions and are unsigned. Their destination is the Canberra street rather than the gallery wall.

Roger Butler, 1983.

Last Updated

06 Aug 2024