Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Cultural Studies, PhD

Program

School of Arts and Humanities

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Eve Oishi

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Joshua Goode

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

David Pagel

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2025 Ann H Bittl

Keywords

Art History, Collective Workshops, Cultural Studies, Printmaking, Women Artists, Women Printmakers

Subject Categories

Classical Archaeology and Art History | Museum Studies | Women's Studies

Abstract

The purpose of the dissertation is to examine the women who paved the way for future generations of women printmakers by tracing the influences and practices of women printmakers throughout history within collective workshops. In the West, the concept of a collective endeavor began during the Middle Ages with monasteries and convents, where artisans created religious works of art as a way to teach illiterate audiences and also to adorn churches and cathedrals. However, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the concept of the collective workshop grew out of artist’s studios and ateliers. Artists were trained in the apprentice system, as in any other profession during the period. They started from age seven to fifteen, living with a master painter. Guilds supervised training, wanting to ensure professional reputations and control the number of artists to limit competition. After leaving their apprenticeships, artists entered related guilds and affiliated themselves with workshops as assistants to master artists. Similar to most other art forms in the early modern period, printmaking was regarded as a man’s enterprise. Yet the culture of printmaking and the print workshops soon became one of a family business, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which permitted women not only to contribute to the print trade but also to achieve recognition. For the most part, painting and sculpture can be created solely by an independent artist. The very nature of printmaking was and still is collaborative. Thus, it was accessible to women during a period in which the idea of the individual artist and the concept of great master artists were finally emerging. By examining the collective environment of printmaking, I propose that women printmakers benefited from and have also been stifled in collective workshops. Yet, these collective workshops have also helped establish some of the greater-known and lesser-known women printmakers. I also trace what can be considered mutually shared experiences for women printmakers, beginning with family-run workshops to art academies, group workshops, art movements, and finally, group press collectives. This dissertation addresses the social and historical context of collective print workshops, beginning with family-run studios through the evolution of the field of printmaking and women’s positioning within it. Ultimately, this investigation can hopefully enlighten this field of study regarding the opportunities, contributions, and inventions of women printmakers, as well as expose the challenges they faced and the recognition they have also achieved.

ISBN

9798314885635

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