ROCHESTER, NY (AAPNW) – On view through February 6, 2022 at the Memorial Art Gallery in the Docent Gallery, “Renaissance Impressions: Sixteenth-Century Master Prints from the Kirk Edward Long Collection” explores the emergence and transformative impact of the print medium on the visual culture of Renaissance Europe.
This exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts, AFA’s Director and CEO Pauline Willis says, “As technological innovation in the arts continues to thrive in our contemporary moment, it is fascinating to re-examine the power of printmaking during the Renaissance. The exhibition…brings some of the most exquisite examples of sixteenth-century printmaking to the public…”
In the exhibit, which includes 82 masterworks in varying techniques by artists such as Albrecht Dürer and Hendrik Goltzius, it explores the seminal role that prints played in shaping Renaissance visual culture throughout Europe.
Featuring many of the era’s most extraordinary and influential prints, including examples in all graphic media from Europe’s major printmaking centers of Antwerp, Florence, Fontainebleau, Haarlem, Mantua, Paris, Prague and Rome, viewers can also enjoy the rich and comprehensive survey of the first Golden Age of printmaking and reveals the vital impact of this new creative medium on art and society.
Also interspersed throughout the AFA exhibition of prints are works included from MAG’s collection of Renaissance decorative arts as well as armor, stained glass, ceramics and textiles. MAG’s works highlight the surprising interconnections between this new print medium and how artists in other media transmitted, transformed and translated print imagery; thusly created a shared visual vocabulary that crossed artistic media and geographical boundaries.
For more information about the exhibition and programming, call 585.276.8900 or see www.mag.rochester.edu.