Women in Print

Zane Bennett Contemporary Art | September 2020

Women in Print tells the frequently overlooked story of female-founded print workshops, which kickstarted an American printmaking renaissance in the 1960s and 70s that continues today. Prior to the 60s, printmaking as means of artistic expression was not a widely accepted concept in the art world. Printmaking was often considered a commercial discipline, and lithography, etching and woodcut were becoming dying art forms.

All of this changed in the early 1960s with the rise of print workshops such as ULAE, Tamarind and Crown Point Press. The monumental effect these workshops had on the world of print and fine art are widely acknowledged and understood within art history. But the fact that these historically significant print workshops were all founded by women is often neglected.

Female-run workshops, female printers and female artists who helped develop and push the medium forward have largely fallen out of the art-historical spotlight, marginalized during their careers (and now in history books) as students, disciples, or wives of their more-famous male counterparts rather than pioneers in their own right. It is important to shift the focus away from these patriarchal histories and acknowledge that without the revolutionary work of ULAE founder Tatyana Grosman, Tamarind Institute founder June Wayne, and Crown Point Press founder Kathan Brown there simply would not be the vibrant array of prints we have today. These three remarkable women helped save printmaking in the United States and pave the way for women working in printmaking and fine art.

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