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Terminology: Silkscreening

Updated: Nov 10

Silkscreening also goes by the term: Serigraph -



Silkscreening also goes by the term: Serigraph. The Word Serigraph is a combination of two Greek words, seicos, meaning silk, and graphos, meaning writing. Silkscreen Printing and other stencil-based printing methods are the oldest forms of printmaking.


Printmaking is a process for producing editions (multiple originals) of artwork. Painting, on the other hand, is a process for producing a single original piece of artwork. In printmaking, each print in an edition is considered an original work of art, not a copy.


"Flowers" layout by Andy Warhol courtesy of the Warhol Foundation


Silkscreen Printing is a stenciling method that involves printing ink through stencils that are supported by a porous fabric mesh stretched across a frame called a screen. Silkscreen Printing is ideally suited for bold and graphic designs.


Actual Warhol silkscreen original silk screen that Andy Warhol used to print his 36 x 36 flower paintings


Silkscreen Printing can be traced as far back as 9000 BC, when stencils were used to decorate Egyptian tombs and Greek mosaics. From 221-618 AD stencils were used in China for production of images of Buddha. Japanese artists turned screen printing into a complex art by developing an intricate process wherein a piece of silk was stretched across a frame to serve as the carrier of hand cut stencils.


Silkscreen printing found its way to the west in the 15th century. The original material used in screen printing was silk. Hence the name Silkscreen printing. Today polyester is the fabric of choice.


The original material used in screen printing was silk. Hence the name Silkscreen printing.


Andy Warhol "Flowers" available at REVOLVER Gallery


In the United States, screen printing took on the status of art in the 1930s when a group of artists working with the Federal Art Project experimented with the technique and subsequently formed the National Serigraphic Society. American artists began making "fine art" screen- prints and devised the term "Serigraph" to distinguish fine art from commercial screen printing. During the 1960s, Serigraphy was popular with POP artists like Andy Warhol, who was attracted to its bold areas of flat color.



"Bold colors and crisp contrast can be created through the technique of Silkscreening. Evoking a attention grabbing moment that can be recreated in different colors - multiple times".

- Johnny Blanco




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