LITHOGRAPHY

Lithography was invented in 1796 by the Bavarian playwright Alois Senefelder, who discovered that a drawing made with a greasy crayon on a flat limestone surface could be fixed chemically and used to print multiple impressions. It was a revolutionary discovery because unlike relief and intaglio printing, lithography requires no carving or cutting. The image is drawn directly onto the surface, making it the most natural and gestural of all the traditional printmaking techniques. The chemistry is simple: grease and water repel each other. The drawn areas of the stone accept ink; the wet, undrawn areas reject it. When paper is pressed onto the inked surface, the image transfers. Today most lithography is done on aluminium plates rather than stone, which are lighter and easier to process, though stone lithography is still practised and is represented in this exhibition. Lithography rapidly became both a fine art medium as it was used by Daumier, Toulouse-Lautrec, and later Picasso and the basis of commercial printing.