Prints

Throughout modern history, advances in printing technology have inevitably ushered in new ways for human beings to communicate with one another and experience knowledge and nature. The very first prints were made in China in the sixth century B.C. Sadly, the technology was lost for some time. The earliest printed book known to be extant is a work called the Diamond Sutra, a holy Buddhist book dating from 868 A.D.During the 1100s and 1200s, Arab and Chinese cultures cultivated large libraries of printed books. It wasn't until the mid 1400s that this technology found its way to Germany. After Johann Gutenberg developed a printing press to produce religious texts en masse, a revolution in printing technology swept the continent. In just 20 years or so, thousands of printing presses like Gutenberg's had sprung up all across Europe.Despite advances in text printing, artists had to rely upon handcrafted reprints of their works for hundreds of years subsequent to the advent of the printing press. Finally, in the mid 1800s, color lithography revolutionized artistic reprinting. Full-color reproduction of paintings enabled merchants to bring beautiful, creative works of art into the homes and living rooms of middle-class families.The 20th century and early 21st century have witnessed hundreds of innovations in artistic printing technology. The internet revolution, for one, has enabled artists from around the world to network and show their work to one another electronically. Communities of so-called self-represented artists have formed on the Web to create marketing havens and name recognition for struggling artists.