How lithographs gained popularity and made history: 10 most famous works

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This unique style, which first appeared in 1796, has been a popular medium among artists throughout time. The necessary equipment and techniques to create lithographs were difficult to acquire, but the process improved slowly throughout the 19th century, and its popularity skyrocketed in the 1870s. Since then, many artists from different artistic movements have used this medium to create their own famous lithographs - here are ten of them.

1. Boxers

Theodore Gericault is known for his incredibly famous work "The Raft of the Medusa", which is kept in the Louvre. Although his talent for oil was evident, he was also a master of lithography. In his work Boxers, the viewer sees two men, one black and one white, in a boxing match. In this way, the artist emphasizes the contrast throughout the work, even with the different techniques he used to create certain parts of the work. For the darker areas of the print, such as the black boxer's torso and white boxer's pants, Theodore used a sharp nib and ink lines, while the white and black boxer's torso and pants were made with soft crayons.

2. Horse racing

The famous modernist artist Édouard Manet experimented with lithographs in the early 1860s. While many artists preferred to hire trained artisans to create engravings of their work, Manet preferred to produce engravings himself. Many of his lithographs were directly reproduced from the originals, leading to reverse versions. As with many of his works, we are given a unique perspective rather than the typical image of horse racing from the stands.

3. Moulin Rouge: La Gulya

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was an avid visitor to the Moulin Rouge in Paris when it opened in 1889. And it’s not surprising that he was commissioned to create a large poster for the establishment. After his success at Moulin Rouge: La Gulya, Toulouse-Lautrec continued to create posters until his death in 1901. He liked the public availability of his posters compared to the paintings. His famous lithographs could be seen all over Paris and were especially attractive to tourists and locals alike due to their emphasis on imagery. In this work we see the famous cancan dancer Louise Weber, who was better known by her stage name La Gulya.

4. Americans Everything! (Christy girl)

Howard Chandler Christie was a renowned portrait painter. From the 1920s to the 1950s, he painted many different presidential portraits and celebrities during this period. In addition to a successful career as a portrait painter, he was also a renowned engraver. Howard produced dozens of famous lithographs promoting World War I recruitment. Some of his most recognizable works include Christie's Girl, a young, educated woman who navigates the modern world with newfound freedom. Christie has been married twice in his life to women who have modeled for his work, Christie's Girl.

5. Emiliano Zapata

Diego Rivera was a Mexican monumental painter who strove to preserve and share Mexican history through his work. He spent time in Italy studying frescoes and returned to Mexico, where he began painting murals in monumental buildings such as the National Palace in Mexico City and the Palace of Cortes in Cuernavaca, which contains a fresco containing the first appearance of this famous scene. In 1931, Rivera was invited to New York to create portable murals for display at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), and the scene reappeared in one of his five works. The popularity and controversy that surrounded the heroic depiction of Emiliano Zapata led to the engravings of this scene.

6. Relativity

Maurits Cornelis Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who used mathematics to create impossible worlds in his work. Scientists and mathematicians initially showed more interest in his work than the art world. In the late 60s, his work began to appear on the covers of albums and books. Its balance between the chaos of the world and the tranquility of its inhabitants underlines the surrealism of the work. His use of three-point perspective eliminates what's at the top and what's below, and creates a tricky situation when it comes to lighting. Escher easily solves this problem by carefully analyzing where the light will come from and how it will affect how he works with each of his horizon lines.

7. Marilyn Monroe

Andy Warhol is a very famous artist, and his work with Marilyn Monroe is one of the most popular and recognizable in the world. Here we have a unique lithograph that he contributed to Valasse Ting's book 1 ¢ LIFE, an incredible collection of Ting's poetry and lithographs by twenty-eight different artists. Warhol's lithograph depicts Monroe's lips - a very recognizable attribute of the famous movie star. At the bottom of the lithograph is one of Ting's poems, The Jade White Butterfly, written in pidgin English, reflecting the past style of beat poetry.

8. Explosion

One of the most famous members of the pop art movement, Roy Lichtenstein has one of the most recognizable styles in the entire art world. He created bold artwork inspired by commercials and comics. The explosion reveals Ben-Day dots, named after their inventor Benjamin Henry Day Jr. They were a popular technique with engravers for shading and coloring. Liechtenstein epitomized the fears of nuclear war at that time. Nuclear bombs and explosions were common in the media around this time, and Roy incorporated their powerful message into his own work to connect with his audience.

9. White line: Square IV

Josef Albers has done a lot for the minimalism and op-art movement, including incredible success in the world of art education. He was a member of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany until he was forced to close down due to the political situation created by the Nazis. After its closure, he emigrated to America and taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and then eventually became head of the design department at Yale University. Josef created his simple yet recognizable lithographs by exploring the optical effects of color and geometric shapes. He took the creation of these works very seriously, viewing them as scientific experiments with the theory of color.

10. Autobiography

Robert Rauschenberg was another pop art giant. The use of images in the media has been an important element of his work since the mid-1950s. He created his combined paintings to break down the barrier between life and art. Autobiography is an offset lithograph depicting the various components of his life. On the top panel is an X-ray of Rauschenberg himself and his astrological chart.

The second panel centers around a photograph of him with his parents when he was two years old. The third panel is a still photograph taken by Rauschenberg during a performance he staged called Pelican. Along with many other elements in the work, Rauschenberg's story is presented in a very apt manner. This work can be displayed vertically or horizontally. In an upright position, it reaches sixteen and a half feet.

Continuing the topic, read also about what became famous for the paintings of the era of romanticism XIX, and which of the artists has achieved tremendous success thanks to their work.