Fine Art Serigraphy

When you purchase one of my prints you are buying a Serigraph of the original artwork.

The term Serigraph literally means to draw through silk. A group of artists who later formed the National Serigraphic Society coined the word Serigraphy in the 1930s to differentiate the artistic application of screen printing from the industrial use of the process. Serigraphy is a combination word from the Latin word Seri (silk) and the Greek word graphein (to write or draw). [source: wikipedia]

Serigraphy is a means to create high quality prints for a piece of original art. It was particularly adopted and developed in the 1950s and was a preferred technique for pop artists such as Andy Warhol, who found it an exciting medium for bringing artistic expression into the production of prints, and who experimented with the variation in colours and textures it offers. It involves the artist acting also as the printmaker, meaning that every print is hand-made by the artist and is itself a work of art. As a result of this hand printing, the Serigraph prints will vary from each other slightly. This variation is a positive aspect that makes each Serigraph unique and original in itself.

To qualify as original Fine Art Screen Prints, Serigraphs must meet the following criteria:

  • The finished print is approved by the artist
  • The printing run is a Limited Edition of a pre-set number
  • The prints are hand signed and numbered by the artist
  • The print is made either by the artist or as per his directions

All of the Serigraphs for sale on ChrisBanford.com are hand printed by myself, in Zermatt Switzerland.

How are Serigraphs made?

The Screens

Hand printing the Matterhorn Serigraph in Zermatt

For each colour contained in the completed Serigraph print a separate screen must be made. A specialised and very fine polyestor material is stretched across a rectangular wooden or metal frame, creating the screen that is then ready for a stencil to be applied to it. I use high quality aluminum frames that are built to fine tolerances by the Swiss screen supply company Serilith.

The Stencils

On each prepared screen, a stencil is attached to the fabric. The job of this stencil is to block ink from passing through the screen's fabric in certain areas and let it flow through on others. Depending on the type of art-work being reproduced, the stencils can be either hand cut (large simple areas of colour) or created with a photographic technique (fine details, complex designs and halftones).

The Printing

Screen printing - Serigraphs

Once the screens with their accompanying stencils are completed, the printing can be undertaken. This involves setting up a screen above the correct area of the paper, and then pulling the ink across the screen with a squeegee, which forces a small amount of ink through the open areas on the stencil and onto the paper.

The paper is then removed from the printing press and allowed to dry.

Once one colour has been printed on all of the paper, a new screen is set up on the printing press, a different colour of ink is added to it and the process is repeated.

ChrisBanford.com Serigraph Prints

When you purchase one of my prints you are buying a Serigraph print of the original artwork.

Our Paper

I have made great efforts to source paper of a quality suitable for this process and have selected a German bütton (Mould-made) paper from the traditions-rich Zerkall paper mill.

Zerkall Buttonpapier (mould-made)

The Matterhorn Sunset on the North Wall Edition is printed on a 270g Zerkall Litho VI Bütton paper. This mould-made paper is one of the best options for creating this type of Serigraph. It is 75% pure cotton, acid free, and does not use optical brighteners. It is museum grade, which means that is non-ageing and does not yellow over time (meeting the ISO 9706 standard).

The Factory in Zermatt

All of my prints are made here in Zermatt in a small screen printing factory (called aptly enough The Factory) owned by Kirk Davis. I worked for Kirk for seven years (mid 1980s to early 1990s) as a screen printer and he's been kind enough to let me use his location for this project. Kirk sells t-shirts on one of the first shops along Zermatt's famous Bahnhofstrasse.