She was Impressive

Since the 1960s Karl Wirsum has experimented in printmaking that pushes two-dimensional media off the wall and into the round. Initially, he printed on clothing, designed tattoos, masks, hats, and puppets (See Smart Museum 2001.537, 2001.543-545). She Was Impressive pushes the techniques of traditional printmaking to new expression in terms of Wirsum’s creative combination of shapes he created using a blind stamp and intaglio (etching) techniques.

The title refers to three prints pulled in a regular edition of ten impressions at the University of Texas at Austin, while Wirsum was a guest artist in the Printmaking Program of the Art Department. (See also 2001.547-548.) In all three prints the outline of the central imagery of two weight-lifting figures is made using blind stamps. (A blind stamp is created from an un-inked plate, or die, pressed to dampened paper. In printmaking history such blind stamps were reserved for identification or marginal decorative uses.) This print is an etching with plate tone and blind stamp. Two related prints are: an etching with plate tone and relief blind stamp (2001.547), and a blind stamp impression created from two un-inked die casts (2001.548).