Title

Collaboration in print, place made: Australian Print Workshop

Author

Butler, Roger; McDonald, Anne.

Source

Imprint. Melbourne: Print Council of Australia, 1966 - ongoing.

Details

volume 39, number 1, Autumn 2004, page 1.

Publication date

March 2004

Type

Essay/article | Periodical

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Collaboration in print, place made: Australian Print Workshop.
byRoger Butler and Anne McDonald

The acquisition of the second archive of workshops proofs Australian Print Workshop Archive 2, a collection of over 3,500 prints by artists Australia-wide, is the culmination of a close association between the National Gallery of Australia and the Australian Print Workshop over the last two decades.

The Gallery’s collection of contemporary Australian prints is extraordinarily rich and by far the largest in the country and it has long been a priority to expand this collection by acquiring the Australian Print Workshop Archive 2. Negotiations spanned almost a decade before an agreement was reached in 2002 between APW Director Anne Virgo and her board and NGA Director Brian Kennedy with the support of Gordon Darling; the archive was purchased for the Gallery with the assistance of funds from the Gordon Darling Australasian Print Fund.

Over 1,000 artists have used the facilities of the Australian Print Workshop since it was first established in the old Victorian Meat Market in North Melbourne in 1981 as the Victorian Print Workshop. Its skilled staff, technical excellence and innovative approach to printmaking has made the APW the ideal creative environment for artists such as Rick Amor, Fiona Hall, William Robinson, Akio Makigawa, Davida Allen, and Sally Smart to name a few.

The Workshop has been situated in inner city Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, since 1991. Under the directors John Loane, Neil Leveson and currently Anne Virgo, it has flourished. The APW is inclusive of artists embracing all styles of work, from realistic portraits to pixilated abstractions. There is no ‘house style’ and the prints produced by etching, lithography, wood and linocuts and other techniques reflect the diverse approaches of the artists. Some are already skilled in printmaking and independently access the APW’s facilities, while others are guided by the expertise of the Workshop’s senior printers.

The long-standing relationship between the NGA and the APW can be traced through a diversity of collaborative projects and events, notably the editioning of etchings by Arthur Boyd in 1985 and 1987, and the exceptionally ambitious Australian Bicentennial print folio in 1987-88. This became a stimulus for other similar significant collaborative projects for the Workshop including the Noel Counihan tribute print folio which followed in 1988, the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria print folio in 1991 and the Australian Opera 40th anniversary print portfolio in 1997. In 1998 the Gallery was closely involved in the evolution of the Sydney 2000 Olympic fine art and again collaborated with the Workshop.

Over the years the Department of Australian Prints, through the Gordon Darling Australasian Print Fund, has purchased many works from the APW. Of particular note are many Indigenous works, including the extraordinarily delicate lithographs produced by the late Kitty Kantilla/Kutuwalumi Purawarrumpatu and the remarkable etchings and linocuts by Tommy May Ngarraija and Butcher Cherel Janangoo.

The association between the Gallery and the APW has also taken place on a more practical, educational level. When Giorgio Upiglio, master printer with Milan based Grafica Uno, and Ken Tyler, American master printer and founder of Tyler Graphics, visited the Gallery to attend the opening of major exhibitions of their productions in 1989 and 2002, both printers embraced the idea of conducting master classes at the APW.

The exhibition place made: Australian Print Workshop includes 93 works by 57 artists. It opened at the National Gallery of Australia on 31^st January 2004 and will travel nationally. The collection of over 3,000 works and images can be viewed in its entirety through the search section of the website http://australianprints.gov.au.

The 5th Australian Print Symposium will be held at the National Gallery of Australia on 2nd, 3^rd & 4^th April 2004 to coincide with this exhibition.

© Roger Butler and Anne McDonald, 2004.
Published in Imprint (Melbourne),vol.39, no.1, Autumn 2004.