What is 'Graphic Art'? Graphic Art in a Collection of Prints and Drawings
The desire to reproduce an artistic idea marked the beginning of print production.		Graphic art in a collection such as the Collection of Prints and Drawings ETH Zurich means art on paper as opposed to art on canvas or panel (oil painting) or art in stone, bronze or wood (sculpture). Graphic art may be drawn with pen or pencil, painted with brush and watercolour, or printed with woodblock, copper plate or stone. Photographs may also be seen as art on paper if the artist has chosen to express him/herself creatively in the medium. The Collection of Prints and Drawings ETH Zurich, the largest of its kind in Switzerland, contains artwork on paper from the 15th century to the present and includes works by Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, Picasso, Warhol and many others. An area of special interest is prints and drawings by Swiss artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today emphasis is placed on contemporary works on paper by national and international artists (Bernhard Luginbühl, Dieter Roth, Franz Gertsch, Urs Lüthi, among others). The collection, a museum contained in boxes and portfolios, comprises 160,000 single leaves and groups of works. A selection of works is displayed in four or five exhibitions annually. On request works may also be inspected in the study room or lent to museums or other public collections in and outside Switzerland.		What is meant by terms such as etching, chiaroscuro, soft-ground etching and drypoint? Our glossary provides an explanation of the most frequently-used terms related to printing techniques and the field of graphic production. Glossary A–Z (pdf 572 KB, in German only)
Last update 3.8.2006_ab