Artnet Specialist Sylvie Francois Walks Us Through 6 Not-to-Be-Missed Prints From Artnet’s 20th Century Art Sale

Learn how six leading artists used traditional modes of printmaking—from lithographs to linocuts—to engage with Modernism.

American artist Joan Mitchell engaged in printmaking throughout the entirety of her career. In 1972, she created a series of aquatint etchings with the famed publisher Arte Adrian Maeght in Paris. Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, used widely since the late 19th century, and is a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. It is often used in conjunction with etching (an even older technique), as it is here, to give both lines and shaded tone.