When I studied art and design in the United States, it saddened me not to see any recognition of Central European culture or contributions in the colorful art history textbooks that were used in my courses. I'm originally from the Czech Republic. Throughout my studies, I missed mentions of my home region's functionalist architecture, poster design and typography, and art concepts like artificialism or concretism. Later, when I joined the printmaking community in New York City, I realized that if there is familiarity with the region's print medium, it is often fragmentary and without context. 

 

The question of where traditional printmaking fits in contemporary art appears throughout the first issue of CELEBRATING PRINT - a biannual publication that explores fine art print, printmaking and print-culture in Central and Eastern Europe. One of my favorite 20th-century modernist artists Jiri Kolar, whose work and support of young artists inspired one of the issue's featured projects, was asked in the 1960s what poetry is. "Maybe nothing, maybe something," he said. I consider the essence of his response applicable to my introduction for the magazine. What is there to say about printmaking today? Maybe there is nothing about it. Because it often clings to the traditional definition of handmade, it may seem that printmaking struggles to progress as a practice. But, maybe there is something.