Lithography is
perhaps one of the most misunderstood creative processes.Mentioning
lithography and art in the same breath them someone is likely to ask
:How could a print be considered a work of art? isn't it just a copy
of something? These questions arise because from the time lithograph
technique was developed in Germany by playwright Alois Senefelder in
the early 19th century it has been used in the publishing and mass
communication industries.
Lithography,which means " to write
or draw on stone" in the Greek language,began with the process of
placing an image on limestone and then transfering it to
paper.Lithographic process is commonly used in the production of
books,calendars,catalog,and brochures. Therefore,is not suprising that
the term lithographic print brings to mind something one could find on
the selves of a bookstore and supermarket.
So why did Affandi make
some lithographs? We will answer this question.We have to take a more
detailed look at the method of creating works of art with the
lithogrphic process and we will agree that a lithographic print
produced by an artist must be defined an original work of art.Besides
providing greater opportunity to display the graphics works to a
larger audience,lithographic enable to offer affordable art to a large
number of people.Many of whom might find Affandi's painting too
expensive,they are sold for hundreds of million rupiahs even some more
milliards.
"Print making is e democratic
media-unit coat is lower and therefore it is more afordable,while
lithography is still original art."But this is more affordable art is
produced through hours of paintstaking concertration through a
complication process.
The first step to make lithography
is to 'grain' a limestone slap. This involves grinding down the
surface of the stone with a mixture of water and carborundum and a
stainless steel disk called a levigator.Most lithography stones,which
are 10 cm think when new,come from a quarry north od
Munich,Germany.Then a drawing or sketch is transferred to the surface
of the stone with a lithographic pencil (grease) due to a basic
principle 'water and oil don't mix ',then the stone is prepared with
the talc and rosen powder where after a solution of Arabic gum and
metric acide is applied.
The chemical process resulting from this
application permit he drawing area absorb oil based ink and will repel
water while the rest of the limestone repel the ink.Once this pint has
been reached a lithographic paper is pressed onto the stone by hand
press and the first litho is printed.This can take many hours and for
ach print all the proces have to be startde over again.An original
lithography is printed on maximum 250 prints,some artist prefer a
limited edition edition of 150 or 99.The lesser the number of prints
the more the value of it.The artist then numbered and signed each
print with pencil. Carborudum
powder is sprinkled accros the wet limestone slab before one
millimeter is ground from the surface to cleanse the stone before the
initial drawing is done.Tracing paper,placed on top of thicker paper
coated with iron oxide powder,is used to transfer the drawing to the
stone with a ballpoint pen.After the drawing is been stabilized on the
stone with an etch solution,a solvent is poure and rubbed into the
stone to make way fro the next step in which printing ink is applied.
After the stone is moved to the
press bed,a rubber roller is charged with ink and rolled over the
stone until there is enough ink on the image to print one sheet of
paper.Paper is then placed on the stone and the press cranked into
position before the pressure bar is lowered and the stone moved
beneath the scraper results in a quality,original work of art. | 
