Founded in 1959, ‘Edition Copenhagen’, is one of the leading lithographic workshops in the world. The workshop and gallery are located in a 1000 m2 distinctive building on Christianshavn in Copenhagen. Edition Copenhagen has three partners (Rasmus Urwald, Dannie Vieten and Peter Wissing) whose intention is to create the best conditions for artists, to develop the printing process and to pass on their knowledge of lithography as a unique medium for artistic expression. The majority of the invited artists exhibit at the most renowned galleries and museums worldwide; in addition to working with established artists, Edition Copenhagen also works with new and not yet established artists. The personal communication of the artworks is important, therefore Dannie Vieten and Peter Wissing travel around the world to present the lithographic editions to graphic collections in museums, and to companies, art collectors, and private individuals. On the website you can see works by the artists currently presented at Edition Copenhagen.
The lithographic workshop
The lithographic prints published by Edition Copenhagen are all made in the workshop by the artists themselves: the printing process is carried out using traditional techniques that date back to the 18th century. Only one artist works at a time in the workshop and the artist is assisted by three lithographers with the very best technical skills.
What is original lithography?
In 1796, Alois Senefelder invented the lithographic printing method. Litos is Greek and means stone, while grafera means to draw. An original lithograph is drawn by the artist directly onto a piece of perfectly cut limestone with lithographic ink or crayon: this type of print is not a reproduction, but an original print. An original lithograph because the artist works directly on the printing surface. The stone is then treated with a mixture of nitric acid and gum arabic, which makes it possible to print from it. The artist chooses the colour in which the stone/motif will be printed. The ink is then rolled onto the stone and a test print is made. The artist can now make corrections to the stone, such as erasing, adding sections or changing the shades of the colour. When this process is complete, a new proof is made and this is repeated until the desired result is achieved and the motif is as the artist wishes. The design is then printed on the number of papers required for the edition. The surface of the stone is then sanded, which causes the motif to disappear and no more of the print in question can be made. If an artist works with several colours, the process is now repeated with a new colour/stone and so on. The colours are transparent and where different colours overlap, new shades will appear. When the work is finished, it is numbered and the artist hand-signs each copy.
The Stones
At the end of the Jurassic period, about 135 million years ago, the climate of Europe was subtropical, and this was the time of the great dinosaurs. In southern Germany – specifically at Solnhofen near Munich – there was a lagoon where a river, which today runs through the city of Ulm, had its outlet into the Tethys Sea. At the bottom of this lagoon, plant remains mixed with mud, forming layer after layer over a number of years. Over time, these layers solidified and became the stones used for lithography. The stone consists of a mixture of lime and silica. It is precisely this mixture that makes it receptive to the greasy ink used by the artist and suitable for printing (There are many fossils in these rocks: animals, birds and fish that once sank into the mud. The famous fossil Archaeopteryx was found here, shortly after Darwin published his book The Origin of Species (1859). Considered the link between dinosaurs and birds, the fossil helped confirm Darwin’s theory. The fossil can now be seen at the Natural History Museum in Berlin).
Paper
We print on acid-free, handmade tissue paper. It’s made of cotton, not wood, which paper is usually made of: it has a special structure that can bear the heavy layer of ink and does not yellow to the same extent as ordinary paper. The paper we use in the workshop today was developed in collaboration between Edition Copenhagen and Velin d’Arches: it is very suitable for lithographic printing. We have our own watermark embossed into the paper along with Arches’ own mark. An old paper mill in Epinal (France) has been producing paper since 1492. Many important documents and works of art have been written and printed on paper from here over the years. The famous French painter Ingres developed a paper suitable for art in collaboration with Arches. An earlier example is Napoleon’s famous map of Egypt, which was also printed on it.
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