Barbara van Buskirk, Albuquerque, New Mexico


	résumé • gallery • exhibitions • about monotype • artist's statement • artist's bio • contact

A monotype is a one-of-a-kind work of art on paper. It is created by painting or drawing an image on a flat surface or plate, placing a piece of paper on the plate, and applying pressure in order to transfer the image from the plate to the paper. Pressure most often is applied with a printing press. It is the simplest and least time consuming printmaking process, producing one (mono-) print (type).

The monotype process produces a single print of a unique image. Here the image on the plate actually is the ink. Sometimes enough ink will remain on the plate after printing an image that a second monotype or ghost can be pulled. The ghost also is a unique image and can be kept “as is” or used as an underpainting.

Printing processes such as etching, lithography, mezzotint and woodblock produce an edition or multiple prints of a single image. Here the image exists on a flat surface independent on the ink.

The Painterly Print: Monotypes from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, the first exhibition devoted to surveying the history of monotypes, premiered at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, October 16-December 17, 1980, and was on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 24-March 22, 1981.