OKC Museum of Art - Paris 1900 Exhibit

Here is a drawing (below) as a study I did after a beautiful litho poster (at left) by one of the great artists of this time. To appreciate these giant posters and the artists who created them, one needs, really, to have done some lithography. 

An image is drawn upon giant five inch thick stone slabs ... yes stone slabs ... that have been polished silky smooth. (These are very special stones quarried and sawn into flat slabs upon which images are printing.)  The surface is "opened" with acid and the artist then draws the image on with either wax litho pencils or painted with a thick masking litho ink to make a resist; then the stone is closed causing the background to resist ink and remain "white" or "closed" during printing ... meaning that it repels ink and keeps the area from taking ink. The drawn area is inked with and the edition is pulled.  Paper is dried and re-moistened and the next color pass is made. Therefore every color requires a different stone slab very similar to modern 4-color separations. (My prints were only done in black ink so I can just imagine.)

The stone and paper are run thru a printing press for each color. To make an edition is no small task for all of the color must register perfectly in every color pass and be printed evenly throughout the run.   It's a big difficult chore.  

This Paris 1900 Exhibit is, unfortunately over but you can find current exhibits at this link:
http://www.okcmoa.com/exhibitions/currentexhibitions

I enjoyed the exhibit. Having done lithographs, I appreciated what went into those monumental posters. I love art nouveau and the decorative work from that period.

Here are more drawing from my sketch book (I always do this because it helps my recall) of the other art work on exhibit that I .