The Printmaker’s Art | Rembrandt to Rego
Sat 2nd Dec 2023 – Sun 25th Feb 2024
National Galleries Scotland: National (Royal Scottish Academy)
The Mound
Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
Tickets £4–£14 | Friends go free
This winter, discover five hundred years of boundary-pushing artwork in The Printmaker’s Art: Rembrandt to Rego at the National (Royal Scottish Academy) in Edinburgh. Visitors can explore four galleries packed with around 100 artworks by some of the world’s most iconic artists, including Rembrandt, Hokusai, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Bridget Riley and Paula Rego. The Printmaker’s Art: Rembrandt to Rego opens on 2 December 2023 till 25 February 2024, with tickets on sale now from the National Galleries of Scotland.
Bringing together the very best examples of fine art printmaking from Scotland’s national collection; The Printmaker’s Art: Rembrandt to Rego includes early woodcuts, such as Albrecht Dürer’s incredible Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, through to bold, punchy pop-art idols such as Roy Lichtenstein’s Reverie and Andy Warhol’s The Cow. The exhibition also looks to the future, with a range of new artworks acquired through the Iain Paul Fund on display together for the first time. These acquisitions include work from contemporary printmakers such as Tessa Lynch, Lucy Skaer, Lucy McKenzie and Christian Noelle Charles. Visitors will also have a unique opportunity to see art on loan from public and private collections, such as exceptional prints by Katsushika Hokusai, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Yinka Shonibare and Cornelia Parker, which will grace the walls of the National (Royal Scottish Academy) especially for this exhibition.
The Printmakers Art: Rembrandt to Rego takes a striking visual journey through a fascinating spectrum of printmaking techniques. From historic trailblazers to contemporary movements, old traditions to new visions, revered artists to the creatively curious, printmaking achieves an array of distinct visual effects which would not be possible in other mediums. It is also one of the most widely accessible forms of artistic expression; starting with a basic handprint on a page, printmaking has the power to evolve into something daring, bold, provocative and new.
National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the Iain Paul Fund 2019. © Ciara Phillips.
At the heart of The Printmaker’s Art: Rembrandt to Rego is a celebration of the skills and processes which form an integral part of this traditional yet ever evolving and much-loved artform. See films of printmakers at work and get up close to discover how you can spot an etching from a lithograph, or woodcut from wood engraving. The fundamental processes developed in the 15th century printing press are ever-present in the bustling print workshops of today. Artworks on show will demonstrate how this has evolved, including the ingenious ways contemporary artists are developing new and sustainable processes, alongside utilising digital technologies, to secure the future of printmaking for generations to come.
Scotland’s printmaking story is key to the exhibition, not only through the artworks on display, but through a series of films from print studios across the country at the forefront of contemporary printmaking. There is also a unique opportunity for visitors to see the tools and working materials used to make prints featured in the exhibition, on loan from the artists themselves.
The Printmaker’s Art | Rembrandt to Rego open on Sat 2nd Dec 2023 until Sun 25th Feb 2024 at National Galleries Scotland: National (Royal Scottish Academy)
©2023 National Galleries
Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.
