Making an impression

THIS year, the London Original Print Fair (LOPF), which was due to run at the Royal Academy on May 1–3, is taking place virtually, in cyberspace, until the end of the month. The disadvantage for print lovers is that we cannot get close to the works themselves, to appreciate their textural qualities—the density and tone of the paper, the depth or shallowness of pigment, the thickness and angle of the inked line. The consolation is that we have a whole month to browse the images that print studios, galleries and publishers have gathered for our delectation and to focus on this often neglected aspect of artists’ production.

Whereas some artists are dedicated printmakers—Norman Ackroyd, for example, whose entire Bermondsey home is, in effect, an etching factory—many others, including potters and film-makers, as well as painters, turn to print regularly as a significant part of their art making. Both Christopher Le Brun and Rebecca Salter, the previous and current presidents of the Royal Academy, are serious printmakers, reinforcing and reinvigorating their ideas and