Platemark: prints and the printmaking ecosystem
Why do fine art prints (etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, screenprints, etc.) and printmaking draw such fervent practitioners, collectors, and fans? Find out how prints were the first internet disseminating images since the mid-15th century. Find out why it takes a village to make, sell, study, and collect these affordable beauties. Who are all these people in the print ecosystem, anyway?
Series one looks at prints and printmaking and how they fit in in the context of museums, the market, critiques, and the print ecosystem. Series two offers a history of prints and printmaking in the West. Series three offers interviews with the people who perform various roles in the print ecosystem. Join us and find out why prints and printmaking occupy the best little corner of the art world. We'll turn you into a fan, too.
Platemark offers a bit of art history, artistic creativity, and introduces listeners to artists, printers, dealers, print publishers, gallerists, art historians, curators, and scholars.
Host Ann Shafer is a curator specializing in prints and printmaking. Formerly she was a curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. She's a podcaster, blogger, and organizer of the Baltimore Fine Art Print Fair (baltimoreprintfair.com).
- Update frequency
- every 11 days
- Average duration
- 64 minutes
- Episodes
- 146
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
BONUS EP History of Prints Tru's Artist's Manifesto
In this bonus episode, Ann Shafer talks to Tru Ludwig about being an artist and art historian, and how being a professor in both disciplines plays out. It's a fascinating confluence of ideas and pass…
s2e10 History of Prints The Italians (MarcAntonio Raimondi)
In s2e10, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig continue talking about Italian printmaking in the 16th century focusing on MarcAntonio Raimondi, Agostino Veneziano, Giulio Romano, and our first female a…
s2e9 History of Prints The Italians (Mantegna)
In s2e9, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig continue their conversation about early Italian printmaking with a strong focus on the engravings of Andrea Mantegna. They also talk about chiaroscuro wood…
s2e8 History of Prints The Italians (Pollaiuolo)
In s2e8, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk about the early history of prints and books in Italy, comparing it to Northern Europe. Differences in style and materials are discussed using the exam…
s2e7 History of Prints Techniques: Intaglio
In s2e7, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig discuss intaglio printmaking techniques, which include engraving, etching, mezzotint, and drypoint. They also talk about aquatint and other methods of gett…
s2e6 History of Prints Techniques: Relief
In s2e6, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig discuss relief printmaking techniques, which include woodcuts and linoleum cuts. They also talk about reduction woodcuts, aka suicide woodcuts.
s2e5 History of Prints Materials: Paper and Ink
In s2e5, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk about paper as a support and the ink that is transferred from a matrix. Without these two materials, prints wouldn't exist.
s2e4 History of Prints Albrecht Dürer (part two)
In Platemark s2e4, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig finish talking about Albrecht Dürer. He had a remarkable career, and changed the perception and reception of prints in Europe at the beginning of…
BONUS EP History of Prints Ann and Tru's Art Origins
In this bonus episode, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk about how they got into art in the first place. From early childhood encounters through college, the hosts reveal why they love art and …
s2e3 History of Prints Albrecht Dürer (part one)
In s2e3, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig finally start talking about an artist. While there are artists of note before Dürer--say Martin Schongauer--he really changes everything. From his monogram…
s2e2 History of Prints The Beginnings
In s2e2, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk about Europe in the 15th century and the state of printmaking, the printing press, moveable type, and early woodcuts. This episode sets the stage for …
s2e1 History of Prints Introduction
Platemark Series Two, History of Prints kicks off with Ann Shafer and co-host Tru Ludwig introducing the series. They talk about teaching the History of Prints (HoP) for the Maryland Institute Colleg…
s1e8 The Print Ecosystem
In the final episode in season one, Ann and Ben talk about the print ecosystem: collaborative printmaking, print publishing, galleries, art fairs, and the fabulous cast of characters that inhabit the…
Bonus Episode: Printshop Pit Crew
Ann and Ben discuss the ballet that occurs in the printshop when the team is editioning a print. Everything is planned. Jigs are made. Everyone has their role. When it's running smoothly, it's sublim…
Bonus Episode: introducing The Curator's Choice
Ann Shafer has a new podcast called The Curator's Choice in which she talks about one object (or set of set of objects) and why she likes it, how she would pitch it, and other behind-the-thinking stu…
s1e7 Prints and Printmaking
In s1e7, Ann and Ben finally turn to prints and printmaking, and evangelize about how wonderful prints are, why they are different and special, why it takes work to get over the hump of understanding…
Bonus Episode: Editions
Editions are the topic of this bonus episode. Ann and Ben talk about the ins and outs of editions: definitions, numbering, exceptions, the publisher-artist relationship. It's definitely not simple.
s1e6 Museums Face Today's Challenges
In episode 106, Ann and Ben continue their conversation about the Western canon, the state of museums in the 21st century, and discuss breaking down the systems that are the foundation of the modern …
Bonus Episode: Ann and Ben's Art Origins
In this bonus episode, Ann and Ben talk about how they got into this art thing in the first place. Seems it helped to have artists in the family.
s1e5 Redefining the Canon
In s1e5, Ann and Ben talk about the Western art-historical canon and recent, important efforts to redefine it, to break it apart, to destroy it. How can/should museums embrace multiple voices and poi…