TR

The term gravure originates from the Greek word “grafikes/grafein” which means to write or draw. It is the painting technique where a pattern is drawn upon a surface that can be carved (such as wood, linolium, copper, zinc, plastic, etc.) with metal tipped tools. Then, the ups and downs of the mold are painted and the design is pressed upon another object.

One of the oldest printing techniques is woodblock printing in which the trunk of a tree is carved and the ink on the bumps left are transferred onto paper. Gravure art was first seen in 15th century Europe and took its inspiration from the carving and drawing arts of Sumer, China, and many other civilizations. Woodblock printing was popular especially in Germany and the Netherlands where schools concerned with such printing were opened. This printing technique had many variations within itself, and generally, pear, cherry, walnut trees and boxwoods were used as molds.

Woodblock printing shortly became widespread, and one of the main reasons it was so high in demand was the need to increase the production of paintings included in religious story books. The technique that became popular and developed nearly all over Europe started to lose its popularity with the invention of litography in 1797. Then with one of the biggest inventions of the 19th century, photography, painting and gravure lost their tasks of documenting and storytelling.

In Turkey, especially during the rule of Ottoman Emperor Abdulhamit II, the palace showed great interest in this technique as well. The first gravures to be translated into Turkish were world maps made up of six apple trees and was made bu Haci Ahmet of Tunus. The first academic examples were seen in the Sanayi-i Nefise School. In 1892 French educator Stanislas Arthur Napier came to teach this form of art, also called “hakkaklık” in Ottoman. In addition to reflecting society’s dressing style, gravures also showed the architectural structures of the time. When in 1927 the Sanayi-i Nefise School became the Fine Arts Academy, new developments were made in the field of gravure and international artist-educators were re-invited.

After the French Leopold Levy became head of the painting department in 1937, he started his independent printing studio and left it to the care of Sabri Berkel. This was the first studio opened only for printing art. Some of the important artists who worked in the studio at this time were Nuri Iyem, Mustafa Pilevneli, and Avni Arbas.

Today the gravure technique is separated into two as classical and modern and has around 40 sub-techniques that include woodcut printing, drypoint, aquatint, mezotint, linocut, soft lacquer, etching, relief and cyanotype.

Woodcut and Linoluem Printing: First examples of woodcut (woodblock) printing were seen in China around the eighth century and it started to be used in Europe beginning from the 14th century. Since those days it helped numerous artists like Kirchner, Matisse, Kiefer to produce unique artworks with its difference in texture and process, also with its role in reproduction of written documents.

In the other hand, linoleum printing started in the late 19th century and is has major similarities with its printmaking process with woodcut printmaking. The images are transferred to easily carved linoleum or wood plates’ using a special type of knife with fine wrist movements. Afterwards, the printmaker spreads the ink on the plate with a rolling pin, so that the elevated parts hold the paint. At the next process, the paint on the plate is transferred to a paper with the help of pressure applied with tools like wooden spoon or print presses. Fraying the wood plate with a steel spoon can emphasize the wood texture on the print. The biggest advantage of woodcut printmaking is the textural tones it gives to the transferred image and an easier production process than lithography or etching.