Monotypes and Monoprints

Nearly all printmaking is done in editions, or

multiple impressions, but some artists who like
the way a printed image looks will opt to create
unique prints. Monotypes and monoprints are
print techniques that enable an artist to produce
an image that is one of a kind.
A monotype image prints from a polished
plate, perhaps glass or metal. The artist puts
no permanent marks on it. He or she makes
an image on it in ink or another medium, then
wipes away the ink in places where the artist
wants the paper to show through. The image is
then printed. Only one impression is possible.
Hedda Sterne (1910–2011) was the sole
woman in a group of abstract painters called
the Irascibles. Although abstract, Sterne’s
Untitled (Machine Series) monotype makes
associations with architectural and mechanical
images (2.3.18). Sterne probably employed a
straightedge to maintain the regularity of line
in the print.
Monoprints can be made using any print
process. The artist prepares the image for
printing as described previously in this chapter,
but will ink or modify each impression in
a unique way. This includes varying colors,
changing the spread of the ink across the
image area, and adding features by hand. The
individual modifications possible are as infinite
as for any hand-made work of art. Artists choose
to make monoprints to explore “themes and
variations,” where some elements of the work
remain the same but others are different. If two
prints are identical, they are not monoprints.
Kathy Strauss’s (b. 1956) monoprint Kepler
Underneath 1 painstakingly depicts the Milky
Way Galaxy (2.3.19, p. 238). The artist has first
incised a series of calculus problems into the
metal plate. As with any other intaglio print, the
plate was then completely covered with ink and