Monotype

Monotype is a unique image printed from a smooth, non-porous plate, such as glass or metal, onto which a design has been drawn in paint or ink. The artist draws freely on the surface of the plate and then presses a sheet of paper against it, transferring the image; because most of the paint passes to the paper in a single impression, it is impossible to obtain a second identical print — hence the name «mono», meaning single. Monotype combines the spontaneity of painting or drawing with the soft, slightly blurred quality of a printed image and the unpredictable effects that arise under pressure. The earliest examples of the technique are attributed to the seventeenth-century Italian master Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Later, monotype was used brilliantly by Edgar Degas, who created series with effects of light and movement. In the twentieth century, the technique attracted many artists for its freedom and immediacy, including masters of Ukrainian graphics, for whom it became a field of experiment with texture, tone, and colour on the border between painting and print.