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You have a long history of working with printmaking and cultural productions from Europe, especially in central Europe. This resulted in several books, lectures, seminars and long-term collaboration with art institutions and other artists and intellectuals. In retrospect, what were the vital points in the development of this very special interest?

I began my critical writing about the visual arts in 1985, at first for magazines, and later for catalogues, before writing my first book (‘Contemporary Painting in Poland’) that was published in 1995. Up to this point I wrote about both historical and contemporary art, but almost exclusively about painting, drawing and sculpture, as well as the visual arts in general. My particular interest in printmaking began during the research for the first book from 1993-95 and my extensive exploration of the art world of Poland. I encountered printmaking in artists’ studios and galleries and realized that the contemporary art scene in Poland at that time (as it still does) included a lot of work using print techniques, often being made by artists who also painted or drew. As a result I was commission to write a second book, ‘Contemporary Graphic Art in Poland’, which included not only prints but also drawings and poster art. My first meetings with the late Professor Witold Skulicz, President of the International Print Society, Krakow, were pivotal in encouraging what has now become my main area of interest in writing and speaking about the visual arts. My subsequent long relationship with the Krakow International Print Triennial has served to enhance and develop that interest, leading to the writing of my third and fourth books, and to my widening international experience.

The complexity of printmaking encompasses strategies from painting, performance, sculpture, photography and film;
is the term “Printmaking” itself a sufficient means of communicating the depth of this medium?

This is a matter of opinion, and can sometimes be a contentious point when printmakers gather and talk about it. The term ‘printmaking’ can be something of a convenience, used to cover the extraordinary range of strategies and techniques that ‘printmakers’ (another term of convenience) use in their work. I think that the time is coming when printmaking is more generally accepted as a subset of the visual arts, in much the same way as painting, sculpture and photography are. True, references are made to ‘painter’, ‘sculptor’, ‘photographer’ and so on - but there is a general understanding (in broad terms) of the word, ‘artist’. Until fairly recently there was a perceived difference between ‘artist’ and ‘printmaker’, accepted and even encouraged by many who defined themselves as ‘printmakers’. The term ‘artist-printmaker’ has been used as well, which confuses the matter still further. It is perhaps more honest to establish, as I attempt to do, the notion that printmaking is just another art practice used by artists, equivalent and equal to painting, drawing, photography etc. However, I am in the minority in stating this - and many printmakers, particularly those who utilize the more traditional techniques, cling on to the definition of ‘printmaker’, as being something distinctive and essentially different, wanting to set themselves apart from painters and sculptors. This tendency can serve to limit the public understanding of printmaking rather than to enhance it.

What is the significance of the title that you have chosen for your book on contemporary printmaking, ‘Printmaking at
the Edge’?

What I sought to do, and what I believe I achieved, in choosing this title, is to establish an wider understanding of the continuing existence of a series of approaches to the use of printmaking techniques through which artists, in many situations and in many countries, are exploring the ways in which they can use those techniques to present, illuminate and explore their concerns over a very wide range, aesthetic, technical, social, political and so on. The edge is not a fixed place, nor is it a hard edge, but a fluid and continually shifting notion or understanding, at which an artist can face up to a range of challenges far outside those faced by anyone who chooses to work within conventional limits. In the introductory chapter of the book I set out something of the nature of the edge, using quotations form various sources to inform the search.

“Printmaking at the Edge” (2006) is certainly a “must read” for all those who seek to gain a fuller understanding of contemporary printmaking. Please tell us about the inspiration behind its conception and the impact you think it made on the global art scene?

The inspiration came from the extraordinary range of work that I encountered, firstly through my work on the juries of the Krakow Triennial and other international competitions, and subsequently through the artists that I met and the work that I saw during the research for the book, through my travels, and my exploration of work of artists that I encountered on the Internet. The international printmaking community - and it is a very real and positive community - contains an almost limitless variety of artists and ways of working, and it is one that is continually evolving and extending, gathering new participants right across the generations, from young students to older artists who discover the excitement and challenge that come from the use of the wide range of available techniques. As to its impact, it is gratifying to know that the book is used as a textbook in a number of educational establishments, and that it also continues to sell in many places in the world, having been reprinted twice since its first publication in 2006. Perhaps it has been something of an inspiration - I like to think so - for artists to push out the limits of their work, to experiment and to try something new, and hopefully to find new ways of expressing their ideas.

Your most recent book, ‘Critical Mass: Printmaking Beyond the Edge’ (2010), evolved around the historical reception of printmaking. Do you think going through past potentials can reactivate and possibly act as resistant or emancipatory elements in the context of today's mainstream technological development, the so-called "past-potential futures?"

I hope (and do not think) that I have dwelt too much on the past in this book. There are references, certainly, to what went before, but this is inevitable when considering something as indefinable and continually mutating as art. Knowledge of the past is necessary in order to see where we are now, and to envision where we might be in the future, and so plan on the means for getting there. This is true for political processes, as events in the first part of this year have shown in many countries around the world, and it is also true for the arts. In neither case can settling for the continuation of what was valid in past circumstances be acceptable for present circumstances, in which the context has changed and different external influences play their part. As the saying goes, ‘If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got’. Progress, whether historical or artistic, depends on visionaries and rebels: history proves this to be true. In the case of printmaking, every single technique in use today, from the most traditional to the most experimental, has come about because an artist has seen that the technology available in the world in which they lived has offered them new possibilities for self-expression. The best art has always come about because an artist has asked, ‘I wonder what happens if I do this?’ I see no evidence that this willingness to embrace new technological opportunities has decreased, and many artists are taking full advantage of technology in their work. But at the same time, and encouraging for those of a more conservative frame of mind who might shake their heads at the rapid advance of electronic machinery, many young artists are also becoming adept at using traditional techniques, including the more challenging ones, such as mezzotint.

Some of the artists you have featured in your books are already successful and some have enjoyed several successes in gaining access to the international art scene. There are of course many others who arguably produce great works of art, but have less recognition. Should printmakers see acceptance internationally as one of the criteria for success? If so, why aren’t more of them becoming global stars on the international art scene?

Firstly, I try to include a wide range of artists in my books and other writings, in order to set out the broadest possible agenda, and likewise to include artists from the full range of generations. Inevitably this will mean that some of the artists are already familiar to those who observe the international art scene, and equally that some of them are more or less complete unknowns, having just graduated from art academies. Among the criteria I use in selecting artists for the books is that they are producing work that is intellectually challenging, technically assured, and artistically innovative. If they can also demonstrate an existing willingness to participate in international competitions and exhibitions, or to travel and explore the work being made in other countries and in other circumstances, then this is all to the good. Wherever possible I encourage artists to consider participating in the large number of international events, or at the very least to see some of them, in order to understand more fully the excellence of the world in which they are working, and to derive inspiration from this understanding. Our world is increasingly a connected one - and again, recent events have shown the power of the Internet - and being a big fish in a small pool (which may be satisfying, perhaps, for a short time) cannot offer enough in the long term. As to why more printmakers are not becoming global stars on the international art scene, well, I guess that there are many factors, one of which is the still persistent (in some international printmaking competitions and exhibitions) tendency for the organizers to choose to maintain a sort of traditional exclusivity, and not to be as open to innovation as perhaps they should be. Equally, many international visual arts event organizers are still reluctant to include printmaking, although I find this hard to understand, considering the quality of much of the work of the artists I have chosen to show in my books. One should not expect the contemporary art world to be conservative, but it often is…

What can curators and art dealers of contemporary print do to dispel preconceived notions of printmaking being associated with reproduction, or even mass-production?

They should keep on showing work that they believe it, regardless of the techniques used, and regardless of whether it is work that is editioned or, as is increasingly the case, in the form of monoprints or unique prints. The demonstration of excellence is always to be encouraged, as is the clear demonstration that printmaking, by virtue of its reproducibility, is also a more democratic art form than, for example, installation or museum scale painting. To make the work of contemporary artists available to a wider range of art lovers with a wider range of disposable incomes seems to me to be a thoroughly laudable ambition. Curators and art dealers should be more willing to encourage as many people as possible to fall in love with art because it touches them, and not just to encourage wealthier people to see it as an investment. In any event, buying art for investment is a precarious business, prone to all sorts of unforeseeable circumstances.

How do you think the development of multi-media, multi-platform technologies and digital print has affected the more traditional printmaking methods?

There is now, more than ever, a fascinating melting pot of techniques available to those who wish to make prints, and the development of the new technologies has offered not only more techniques of a discrete nature, but also the possibility of combining digital and traditional techniques to produce new and exciting hybrids, as well as the possibilities of large scale prints on the new generations of digital printers and large format traditional presses. In addition there are news inks, new types of papers and substrates and the possibilities of printing on to a variety of textured surfaces, not to mention the challenges of three-dimensional printing and rapid prototyping. This technology is progressing at such a pace that affordable domestic scale three dimensional printers, analogous to inkjet printers, are already available, and will certainly become cheaper. Curiously, while all this technological excitement is going on there are still many artists, including young artists, who seek to become masters of traditional techniques. It is a print multiverse that extends in all sorts of directions, and with a potential that can only be guessed at.

In an era of rigorously defined rules in the contemporary art game, where critical work is so often chosen and used as a strategy of self-reinvention for the late capitalist system, how could one define a utopian potential in art today?

The international print community to which I have already referred, has long been one in which the exchange of prints between artists has been a common event. Portfolios, such as the ‘Further’ portfolio that grew out of ‘Printmaking at the Edge’, is a case in point - each of the participating artists has a copy of the portfolio, to use as they wish. Some of these were made into exhibitions in a number of countries, others remain in the artists’ own collections. The participatory nature of printmaking is one of its strengths and will be one of its saving graces. Such notions may be considered as ‘utopian’ and to be seen as standing in opposition to what many see as being the excesses of the late capitalist art market. A further fascinating development is that of travelling print workshops, such as ‘Drive By Press’ in the USA, who take printmaking workshops to students and communities far beyond the places in which contemporary art is usually made and shown. That the proliferation of such initiatives is also linked to the making of work that is politically and socially challenging and critical takes further the stance of artists such as Goya, Daumier and Posada who all made prints that were politically challenging and still have the capacity to shock.

You are currently working on your next book 'Printmaking Off the Beaten Track.' Would you like to share it with our readers?

My work on this next book is at a very early stage, and will be subject to a continuing process of research and refinement before I start to write it. What I am hoping to achieve is to produce a study of the ways in which printmaking (or print techniques) are being used by artists in some of the countries that are not usually featured to any great extent, or at all, in international competitions and exhibitions, or in magazines or books. Little is anything is known about the art of these countries in Western Europe, North America and Japan, but I am certain that there is much that deserves to be better known. Some of the countries I am considering are those in which there has been conflict in recent years, or in which there is currently some form of conflict. Others are those that have, for one reason or another, been thought of as being outside the international art circuit. I think that this exploration of ‘the dangerous edge of things’ might well produce results that will surprise many people and encourage an even wider awareness of the fascinating world of contemporary printmaking.