Publisher's Synopsis
Mistresses of the graphic Arts: Now straight forwardly a reference book, Mistresses of the Graphic Arts provides an alternative 'distaff side' history of European and British printmaking over five centuries. (It was originally published additionally as both a stock and exhibition catalogue.) Following a two-page Introduction to the subject, chronologically ordered biographical entries for 220 artists are illustrated with 361 prints; each print is reproduced and fully catalogued. Examples in almost all the different printmaking techniques are represented - engravings, etchings, woodcuts, wood engravings, lithographs and linocust; as are most schools and artistic movements. The women artists included span 500 years and are indexed on the inside back cover. A final page lists a further 93 women printmakers who are not included in this catalogue, as I had not found any prints by their hand; 27 of these were subsequently included in the later complementary sequel Unsung Heroines, published 2004. A loose sheet of Addenda& Corrections was also compiled in 2004 when I was preparing Unsung Heroines and is included. The two catalogues in tandem, probably provide the most comprehensive fully illustrated listing of women printmakers available, between them referencing over 400 practitioners. Unsung Heroines: The Etching boom years; a new British generation of traditional etchers; British, Continental& visiting American modernist etchers; lithographers; Modern British colour woodcut artist; japoniste colour woodcuts artists; colour linocut, including British, Swiss & Australian Grosvenor School linocutters; wood engravers - a technique in which women had a prime place; to a continuing etching tradition in the later decades of the century. 311 items are illustrated by 245 women printmakers, 189 of them not included in the previous catalogue. Where artists are 'duplicated' in the second catalogue, they are represented by different images, sometimes made by different processes. The entries supply only additional or fuller information; they do not repeat the information in the first catalogue - and are referenced with the relevent item numbers in the previous catalogue (Mistresses 1; Mistresses 205). Though European artists and Americans who spent some time in Europe are included, British women predominate in numbers. All the artists are indexed on the inside back cover.
