Medium: Screenprint / Serigraph/ Silkscreen
Screen printing, also known as silkscreen or serigraphy, is a printmaking technique that uses a mesh to transfer ink onto paper except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. Silk or synthetic mesh is first pulled tight onto a frame. There are several ways to create the blocking stencil on the mesh, including blocking glues, acetate, and ultraviolet light-sensitive emulsions. Once the stencil has been created, the screen is placed on top of the substrate, and ink is squeegeed across the mesh, going through the non-blocked portions of the stencil. This technique became popular in the mass-produced market since it can be used on several different substrates, like fabric, paper, and plastic, and can easily become an automated process done by machines.
Explore Screenprints in the collection
Harry VanKuyk, Grafinu, silkscreen, 1976, 2002.0148.1.
Cyril Lixenberg, Zonder Titel (Untitled), silkscreen, 1988, 2001.0310.1.
Shepard Fairey, Make Art Not War, offset lithograph, ca 2016, 2021.34.1.
Resources in the Collection
Header Images
Left
Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock's Comb, serigraph, 1995, 2007.539.1.
Roland Sipes, Portrait of Piet Mondriaan, silkscreen, 1994, 2002.00101.1.
Itzchak Tarkay, Spare Time, serigraph, 1989, 1998.542.1.
Center
Yaacov Agam, Hold in Converging Blue Space, serigraph, 1984, 1998.426.1.
MalaquĆas Montoya, Me Hechan De Mejado, serigraph, 1983, 2022.39.1.
Clarence Holbrook Carter, Balancing Act, serigraph, 1978, 2007.087.1.
Right
Rory Miller, Poplar Tree, serigraph, ca 2014, 2023.42.10.
Madeline Devantier, Athena, screenprint, 2023, 2025.39.7.
Olga Florenskaya, The Best People of St. Petersburg, silkscreen, 2006.540.1.