Imprinting the South : Southern Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920-1940s

The American South gave rise to some of the most aesthetically powerful practitioners of printmaking. This book outlines the history of printmaking in the South, its rise in popularity, its variations from region to region, the different methods embraced by printmakers, the growth of the print society movement, and the influence of social realism.

Prints - etchings, woodcuts, linoleum cuts, lithographs, and serigraphs - began to flourish as artistic media after World War I due to their affordability and an expanding market of art consumers. The American Scene movement, which arose in the 1920s and surged through the 1930s and 1940s, emphasized regionalism and embraced printmaking in particular as a medium well suited to portraying regional life. The American South became a focus for many artists and gave rise to some of the most aesthetically powerful practitioners of printmaking. In this book, Lynn Barstis Williams outlines the history of printmaking in the South, its rise in popularity, its variations from region to region, the different methods embraced by printmakers, the growth of the print society movement, and the influence of social realism, New Deal art programs, and the Arts and Crafts movement on the aesthetics of southern printmakers. She also reviews the motifs, imagery, and subject matter that predominated in the work of many southern printmakers - the natural world, farms and farmers at work, rural architecture and townscapes, African-American life, religious gatherings, and scenes of leisure and play (hunting, dancing, music-playing). As a finale, the author presents a catalog of 60 entries on printmakers of note, including a biographical sketch, representative sample of their work, and analysis of their imagery. This book accompanies an exhibition entitled ""Imprinting the South: Works on Paper from the Collection of Lynn Barstis Williams and Stephen J. Goldfarb"" scheduled to run from July 21 - September 16, 2007, at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens and in the winter of 2009 at the Jule Collins Smith Museum at Auburn University.