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The Third Minnesota National Print Biennial showcases the vitality of printmaking in all its forms. Organized by the University of Minnesota Department of Art and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, this national juried exhibition reveals the broad variety of technical and aesthetic interests of contemporary artists who make prints. The Print Biennial
is on display at the Weisman from April 29 through June 24, 2001. Traditionally an original print was produced by a hand-pulled direct transfer method. Paper was placed on a surface that had been worked on by an artist and from which an impression was printed. The surface could be stone, wood, metal, screen, or other material, and the image was transferred directly to paper under pressure. All aspects of the imaging, processing, and production were controlled by the artist and the printer, who sometimes were one and the same person and sometimes not. Directly transferring hand-applied ink from an artist-generated image on a surface to acid-free archival paper in limited numbers creates a work of art that cannot be achieved any other way. A print is not a copy or a reproduction. It is a multiple, a term that is not limited to the print field. Sculpture, for example, also has its multiples when created from a mold or cast. An original print is one that the artist, from conception, intended to produce as a print and did so using the finest materials available. A print is produced only in a limited edition, which generally numbers between 10 and 200. In some printmaking techniques the number is further limited because the quality of the print decreases as the lines that were carved or etched into a surface begin to wear away due to the repeated pressure of printing. Printmaking today is a medium in transition as it continues to experience the influences of technology. In fact, printmaking has always been an art based on technology, and the introduction of computers has opened up a powerful new means of giving form to artists' imagination. Fine art photography has been similarly affected. The Print Biennial raises the question of whether significant differences can remain between photographs and prints if both printmakers and photographers create images using the same or similar computer technology. The exhibition does not provide an answer but offers a forum for an exchange of techniques, trends, and ideas in printmaking activity, however it is defined. Organized by Jerald Krepps, associate professor in the department of art at the University of Minnesota, The Print Biennial received more than 800 entries from 400 artists from 47 states. The jurors selected 95 works by 88 artists, including 16 Minnesotans. Jurors for the exhibition were Lyndel King, director, Weisman Art Museum; Patricia McDonnell, curator, Weisman Art Museum; and T. L. Solien, artist and professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison. The following is an excerpt from the jurors' statement, written at the completion of the selection process: "As jurors, we were required to make choices and as is the case in any situation, choices reflect individual judgments. The works selected for this exhibition reflect the judgments of three individuals who came to the process with different backgrounds but with the same commitment to making the best decisions possible. We were interested in selecting works of art that made strong statements and were not only a technical tour de force. At the same time, we agreed that artists should understand their mediums and use them to their best advantage in creating a work of art. While we understand that three different jurors might have made different selections, we agree that the exhibition represents the highest quality from among the works of art we considered. Quality is a much-contested notion in the present art world. Do absolute and universal values truly exist in visual expression, values that supercede time, place, and culture? How are these absolute values applied? And by whom? The past century of art theory, criticism, and practice held tight to the concept of absolute values. Formalism and modernism wove dependent ideas around it. Today's postmodern thinkers, however, take a very different view. Leading critics argue that determining quality no longer remains a valid undertaking in the visual arts today. 'Quality,' for some today, stands as a code word for the exclusionary tactics of a Eurocentric, patriarchal society. As jurors, we are aware of both old and new ideas about quality and our task, we believed, was to be open-minded and yet exercise judgment about quality. As the jury for The
Third Minnesota National Print Biennial, we passed judgments of value
over a remarkably strong body of work. Many inventive and technically
sophisticated artists entered this competition. Their creative voices
are on view for the larger community to see and enjoy in this year's exhibition."
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