4to. pp. 192. b/w illustrations. index. wrs. [Ottawa]: National Gallery of Canada, 1996.
New in publisher's shrink wrap.
ISBN: 0-88884-655-X / 9780888846556
Published in conjunction with an exhibition A New Class of Art: The Artist's Print in Canadian Art, 1877-1920, organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada.
Inspired by the prints of the Dutch old masters, 19th-century European and American artists began to reexamine printmaking as a form of original artistic expression. The resulting print revival was not just a matter of artists reclaiming a medium that had become the province of a craftsmen engaged in the printing trade, it also inferred an interest in the artist's print by collectors, dealers, critics, and art societies and institutions. This is the first study of the origins and establishment of the artist's print in Canada, an art form that made its public debut at an exhibition organized by the Association of Canadian Etchers in 1885. In the years covered by our study, Canada produced printmakers of international renown, as well as unstoppable pioneers who brought "a new class of art" to their homeland.