Screen Printing and Stencil
Screen printing, or serigraphy, forces ink through a fine mesh screen onto the support, with a stencil blocking the areas that should not print.
Definition
A stencil printing process in which ink is pressed with a squeegee through the open areas of a fine mesh screen onto the surface below, while a stencil on the screen blocks ink from the non-printing areas.
Scope
This topic covers stencil-based printing, especially the screen print: stretching and blocking a mesh screen, preparing photographic or hand-cut stencils, and pulling ink across the screen with a squeegee to print flat, opaque color, along with the medium's adoption by Pop artists and its wide commercial use.
Core questions
- How does forcing ink through an open mesh, with a stencil blocking the rest, create the image?
- How are hand-cut and photographic stencils prepared on the screen?
- Why does screen printing yield flat, opaque areas of color well suited to multiple printings?
- How did fine artists adopt a process developed for commercial use?
Key concepts
- Mesh screen and squeegee
- Hand-cut stencil
- Photographic stencil (photo-emulsion)
- Registration
- Flat opaque color
- Serigraphy
Key theories
- Stencil and mesh printing
- The defining principle that ink passes through the open mesh of the screen only where the stencil leaves it unblocked, allowing flat, even areas of opaque color to be printed in register, color by color.
- Photographic stencils and reproduction
- The development of photographic stencils, which let photographic and found imagery be transferred to the screen, a capability that Pop artists exploited to engage with mass media and reproduction.
History
Stencil printing has ancient roots, but the modern screen print developed as a commercial process in the early twentieth century. Adopted by fine artists from the 1930s — when the term serigraphy was coined to distinguish artistic work from commercial signage — it became central to Pop art, where Andy Warhol used photographic screen printing to engage directly with mass-media imagery and seriality.
Debates
- Authorship and the seriality of the screen print
- Because screen printing readily reproduces photographic imagery and is often executed with studio assistants, it sharpened debates about originality, the artist's hand, and the meaning of the multiple in the Pop era.
Key figures
- Andy Warhol
- Eduardo Paolozzi
- Sister Mary Corita Kent
Related topics
Seminal works
- griffiths1996
- ross1990
- gascoigne2004
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between screen printing and serigraphy?
- They name the same stencil-and-mesh process; serigraphy was coined in the twentieth century to distinguish artists' screen prints from commercial screen printing, but the underlying technique is identical.
- Why was screen printing important to Pop art?
- Photographic screen printing let artists such as Andy Warhol transfer and repeat mass-media images in flat, mechanical color, making the process well suited to Pop art's engagement with reproduction and consumer culture.