‘Printmaking in Process’ talk unearths hidden tenderness beneath laborious art form

Stephanie S.E. Lee, a 2024-25 graduate fellow at the Block Museum of Art, hosted a talk on Wednesday titled “Printmaking in Process,” diving into printmaking and the inspiration behind renowned works by various artists.

In connection with the Block Museum of Art’s exhibit “Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper,” the event featured a panel of artists Anna Kunz, Soo Shin and Art, Theory and Practice Prof. Lane Relyea.

“Corinne and I chose (Shin and Kunz’s) works to be part of this exhibition because of the generative dialogue that they create with Frankenthaler’s works on paper,” Lee said.

To begin the talk, Relyea displayed images of Frankenthaler’s paintings and described her famous soak-stain technique. The process involves dripping paint onto raw canvas, which seeps into fibers to create halos around her colors. Frankenthaler demonstrated a particular focus on manipulating free-flowing paints into distinctly separate shapes, Relyea said.

Kunz discussed her artwork “Dreaming of Floating,” displayed in the Block. She emphasized the laborious and intimidating nature of printmaking, explaining that her work demonstrates her interest in layering prints to create cohesive images. Kunz gave credit to master printmakers who allow artists the freedom of creativity while they handle the technicalities. 

Where Frankenthaler, in her work, was intent on keeping colors separate, Kunz was interested in how they blur together. Regardless, she said, Frankenthaler remained an influential figure in both her art and her dedication.  

“Frankenthaler reminded me, as a young artist, that I would have to stand my ground and just go for it,” Kunz said. “I don’t know if this relates to Helen Frankenthaler, but I have a hunch it does — there’s something profound about taking something very intimate and giving it a monumental presence.”

Kunz then surrendered the spotlight to Shin, who discussed her collection of works “Pas de Deux,” some of which are featured in “Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding.”

Her printmaking process was unique for these pieces: She ventured into the Pacific Ocean, relying on waves to pull ink-coated balls across the paper she had inside a wooden vessel. Shin, who has been enamored with the Pacific Ocean since 2020, said she viewed the ocean as a metaphor for relational space that holds the ever-shifting dynamic between individuals, homes, nations and cultures.

Shin said she, too, was inspired by Frankenthaler. 

“The work doesn’t emerge from control, but being present with the elements,” Shin said. “It mirrors what I’ve always admired about Frankenthaler’s work, where the balance is always present between authorship and letting go and also between leading a process and being shaped by it.”

Relating her art to printmaking, Shin said her work is not a representation of the ocean, but rather a documentation of the “shared choreography” between the paper and the waves that create a “pas de deux” (“dance for two”).

Both Shin and Kunz described the vulnerability of surrendering your body to art, especially in such a physically engaging form as printmaking. Their inspiration often came accidentally, but both said it was the unpredictability of their environment, paints and personalities that allowed them to produce great art.

“How we all got on stage together was kind of a happenstance of how (Shin and Kunz’s works) were in the Block and how this Frankenthaler gift allowed us to do the show,” Lee said. “Maybe it’s an accident, but it’s also luck.”