This Wisconsin State Journal published an article that previews the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) conference, “Our Shared Future,” which is happening this week (March 16-19) and is hosted by the School of Education’s Art Department.
The article, headlined “Madison becomes an epicenter of prints this month,” explains that the 2022 event marks SGCI’s 50th anniversary as an organization. “It’s been three years since our last conference” because of the COVID-19 pandemic, “so everyone is super-excited,” said Emily Arthur, an associate professor in the Art Department and a member of the conference steering committee.
“Madison has a really strong legacy in the field of printmaking,” Arthur added. “And the Midwest is a real center for printmaking. Generally the East and West coasts receive the most attention, but I think the focus of this conference is to really highlight not only the presses in the Midwest, but also the scholarship around printmaking.”
“Printmaking” is “kind of an umbrella term that describes woodcut and etching, lithography, screen print,” and sometimes book art and handmade papers, Arthur explained. It is also a collaborative art, the article notes.
“There are so many hands-on,” Arthur said. “They used to call it ‘print jobbers.’ There might be 50 people on a project. People have their specialty within the shop. So this community that forms in the print shop around labor and materials is very different than other forms of art that are solo, with one artist in the studio.”
The article also highlights a few of the many exhibitions that are on display around Madison during the conference, including an exhibition that Arthur curated, “Seeing Audubon: Robert Havell, Jr. and the Birds of America,” at UW–Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art.
The exhibition, which runs through April 3, examines how watercolors made in the field by naturalist John James Audubon were transformed into prints by Robert Havell Jr. between 1827 and 1838 in his London print shop. Arthur attempts to “reverse engineer” the prints that make up “The Birds of America” to see what techniques, methods, and materials Havell used to create the collection.
“This is about chemistry and techniques and recipes that belonged to a single shop,” she said. “While Audubon is really the primary voice that is recognized when it comes to ‘The Birds of America,’ his collaborating printmaker contributed a lot more than what is often discussed.”
“To honor the history of materials and printmaking for the conference, I wanted to bring this to the forefront — and it really was an amazing process,” pairing the Chazen’s resources with publications from the Department of Special Collections at Memorial Library, she said.
“It’s a really unique exhibition that’s featuring the materials and process, along with how printmaking aligns with the history of science, which brings ‘The Birds of America’ into that same history.”
The SGCI conference offers a unique opportunity for the UW–Madison community to hear from national and international artists and see their work right here in our own backyard. A few events and most exhibitions — on the UW–Madison campus, throughout Madison, and beyond — are open to the public.
Learn more about what to do and see during the SGCI conference, and read the full Wisconsin State Journal article.