gravură - Universitatea Naţională de Arte

of texts means printmaking. In this way, the essential ways of printing,in height, depth and flatness, became as many forms of industrialprinting, in which the principles of activation and neutralizationof portions of the printing plate are exactly identical, while on theother hand, the differences are remarkable when we refer to theperformance of new and resistant materials as well as the speedof printing. The historical points of reference, can be marked, evenwith all the difficulties caused by the uncertainty of printmakingby contrast to the skill of printing. The truth is that to the extent towhich we cannot imagine our civilization without the contributionof printing, printing with its distinct modes would not have existedwithout printmaking. This is not simply a theory of “pro domo sua”,but rather a solid legitimization of printmaking not only within thetraditional arts, but also as a variety of techniques, which createdthe pillars of the civilization through images.It is evident that, emphasizing the virtues of printmaking alsorequired a systematic presentation of traditional techniques withregard to modern technology of printing, a topic that will be fullydiscussed in chapter II. In this way, the topic of printmaking – itsperformance and its limitations came up, especially when talkingabout its printing possibilities. As long as printmaking replacedprinting or was accompanying it, as it was the case of texts withmobile elements, all its weaknesses and qualities were directlyrelated to the process of printing: a greater number of copies, amore clear and equally matched in terms of images. The qualityand texture of the paper, the fluidity of ink, the professional level inwhich pressure was carefully added up at the printing press in orderto make sure that the printed text was carefully executed, constitutesa judicious performance. This kind of finesse of the evaluation ofMATERIALITATEA ÎN GRAVURĂ209