Elizabeth Savage: Early Colour Printing:ÌýGerman Renaissance WoodcutsÌý
ColourÌýprinting techniques transformed how printed material could be used during the technological and cultural revolutions of the sixteenth century. Later designers and artists around Europe celebrated these techniques’ heritage for centuries, from the ‘DürerÌýRenaissance’ until chromolithography revolutionised the print market in the nineteenth century.ÌýElizabeth SavageÌýwillÌýdetail the story of the beginnings ofÌýcolour printing in Germany through the unrivalledÌýcollection of theÌýBritish Museum,Ìýwhose rich holdingsÌýincludeÌýmanyÌýpreviously unidentified examples of early modern colour-printing,Ìýsome believed to be unique in the world.
Kirsty Sinclair Dootson:The Complexion of the Chromolithograph: Colouring Skin in Victorian Print AdvertisingÌý
In her talk,ÌýKirstyÌýDootsonÌýwillÌýexplore how chromolithography changed the way racial difference materialised in print in Britain through depictions of skin in late nineteenth-century advertisements. Chromolithography was the first affordable technology for mass-producing coloured images, transforming the realm of print advertising. It was widely used to promote imperial goods resulting from the intensified colonial exploitation of Africa from the 1880s. Colour enhanced the visual appeal of these products, but also gave printers an expanded palette for exploiting racial difference as part of these advertising campaigns. The addition of colour to a formerly monochrome medium raised questions about the relationship between skin colour and British racial identity. How was it possible to render ‘white’ skin in a variety of hues without it becoming, in the racist terminology of the time, ‘coloured’? Furthermore, when chromolithography lent a distinctive surface pattern, or complexion, to prints, how did these spotted colours intersect with ideas of cleanliness, class, labour, and beauty?
Dr Elizabeth Savage is Senior Lecturer in Book History and CommunicationsÌýat theÌýInstitute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, andÌýHonouraryÌýFellowÌýat theÌýCentre for the Study of the Book, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University. She is co-founder and co-director of the Book and Print Initiative, School of Advanced Study. She co-founded and directed the Printing Colour Project, 2009–2018.Ìý
Her latest book isÌýEarly Colour Printing: German Renaissance Woodcuts at the British MuseumÌý(2021).ÌýÌý
DrÌýKirsty Sinclair DootsonÌýis Lecturer at the University of St Andrews; sheÌýreceived her PhD in Film and Media Studies with History of Art from Yale University in 2018. DrÌýDootson’sÌýcurrent book project asks how new ways of making colour profoundly transformed the meaning of colour in modern Britain. Exploring a range of chromatic technologies from the 1850s to the 1960s, the book considers both the material mass production of colour in the form of paints, inks and dyes, as well as chromatic mass media including printing, photography, film and television.ÌýÌý
Organised by Dr Ketty Gottardo (91Ó°ÊÓ), Dr Esther Chadwick (91Ó°ÊÓ) and Dr OlenkaÌýHorbatsch (The British Museum).Ìý