The Book as a Work of Art: RSAL Hosted a Meeting with the Lithography Artists Ekaterina Smirnova and Daria Samoylova
Lithography is a special method of printing images in which ink is transferred from stone to paper under pressure, the lithographer independently directs what will be created and depicted on paper, gathering several genres under one idea.
The term “lithography” comes from two Greek words: lithos – “stone”, and grapho – “writing”, “drawing”. For lithography, smooth, flat limestone stones are selected and polished. Next, printers transfer the image from special paper — crush corn paper.
Lithography became popular in the 19th century, and today in the 21st, the popularity of lithography is noticeably growing.
Ekaterina Smirnov spoke about how artists in the studio work on their pieces, how long it takes to work on a single drawing. This incredibly interesting story was supported by a video clip, and those present, though indirectly, could appreciate the titanic labour of a lithographic artist.
Darya Samoylova told how the idea of her graduation project — an installation dedicated to the OBERIU (a short-lived avant-garde collective of Russian Futurist writers, musicians, and artists in the 1920s and 1930s) — came about.
After the presentation of the work, everyone could examine the books themselves, which transformed from a seemingly simple idea of the artist into a true art object.
We would like to thank Ekaterina Smirnova and Daria Samoylova for the meeting and hope to see their personal exhibitions very soon.
