Printing press brings Blake to life
Posted on 9 November 1999
The hand-operated rolling press, which weighs over a ton, has been set up for students taking a new and innovative University of York MA course 'Blake and the Age of the Revolution'. Students are looking at Blake's works in relation to the cultural and historical factors that affected their creation and publication.
The press will be used by Dr Michael Phillips, who convenes the MA, and who is to be guest curator of a major Blake exhibition opening at the Tate Gallery in London in November 2000. He will demonstrate the revolutionary printmaking process known as Illuminated Printing, that Blake invented to produce his work. Students will be able to get hands-on experience of the method.
Dr Phillips uses copper plates of the same type Blake would have used, a laborious inking process, and 'wove' paper that absorbs the ink, in order to get as close to Blake's method and materials as possible.
Notes to editors:
- The University of York postgraduate Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the King's Manor was founded in 1996 to foster interdisciplinary study and research in the 'long' eighteenth century. It is staffed by members of the departments of Archaeology, English, History, History of Art and Philosophy, and attracts students from all over the world.