Prints from Then till Now (FA 106X)


Marjorie B. (Jerry) Cohn

Office: Fogg Museum, Mongan Center (at left side of courtyard, 1st floor)
Office hours: Wednesday, 2-5, and any other weekday or Saturday a.m. by appointment
Phone: 5-2393 (work); 646-6192 (home; not after 9:30 p.m.!)
e-mail: cohn@fas.harvard.edu
WWW: www.fas.harvard.edu/~cohn

Assignments, grades, exhibition: See the following schedule for the assignments and their due dates. Each class member will also give an oral presentation on the subject of the final assignment; two (same day) sessions are scheduled for this. Grades will be based on the paper (15%), the oral presentation (15%), the mid-term quiz (20%) class participation (25%), and the electronic exhibition (25%). There is no final exam.

Readings: Ivins and Holman should be "read" in their entirety by the end of the semester. Both are essentially picture books, with Holman being illustrated with original prints. The illustrations in Ivins are wretched: you'll just have to assume he knows what he's talking about.

Gascoigne is a general technical reference, to be browsed, and consulted in detail when needed.

Please do the readings for each week prior to the class. I am less interested in your memorizing names and dates; rather, you should understand the technical and historical information and, especially, the author's point of view. Many of the readings are in exhibition catalogues, where the reproductions throughout should be scanned.


Feb. 2: Introduction; relief and intaglio techniques

Feb. 9: 15th c. printmaking; Durer and Lucas

    Landau/Parshall, pp.1-6, 21-28, 65-74, 347-358
    Koerner, pp.34-42
    Jacobowitz/Stepanek, pp.21-25
No class on Feb. 16

Feb. 23: Marcantonio; reproductive engraving

    Bialler, pp.12-15, 40-43
    Landau/Parshall, pp.120-146
    Clayton, pp. xi-xii, 172-206
Mar. 2: Mannerism and naturalism; Callot and Rembrandt
    Davis, pp.10-19
    Brown University, Introduction
    Ackley, pp.xix-xxiii, 66-71, 184, 199, 232-245
    Stone-Ferrier, pp. 3-26
Mar. 9: Mid-term quiz; discussion of electronic exhibition

Mar. 16: Tonal intaglio techniques
1st assignment due; see handout or "first assignment" on website
    Ackley, pp.150-155
    Bayard/D'Oench, pp.6-10 and plates
Spring break

Mar. 30: Lithography; romanticism and caricature
    Hart, pp.9-16 and plates
    Farwell, pp. 7-15
    Rosen/Zerner, pp.73-110
Apr. 6: Etching Revival; Color printing
    Janis in Metropolitan Museum, pp. 9-28
    Dorment/MacDonald, pp. 63-64, 179-180, 185-186, 198-199, 245-248
    Druick/Zeegers in Reed/Shapiro, pp.xxxi-xxxix, lix-lxi
    Cate in Cate/Hitchings, pp.1-15
    Baas in Baas/Field, pp.18 (middle of p.)-21
Apr. 13: Student Conferences; these can be scheduled throughout the week. Expect your conference to take an hour or two.

Apr. 20: Expressionism and other -isms
    Carey/Griffiths, German, pp.14-39
    Carey/Griffiths, American, pp.10-17
Apr. 27: Printmaking since 1960
    Gilmour, pp.8-115
    Castleman, pp.9-14
    Wye, pp.7-10
May 4: Student presentations. This will be a four-hour class, from 1 to 5, with a break at 3. You are expected to attend for at least two hours.

May 11: Electronic presentation due.