An Interview with Workshop Director,
Jeroen van den Maagdenberg

It's an interesting concept: a public workshop for professionals. Usually publicly-funded ateliers are for students or amateurs. How did this one for professionals come about?
We started in 1958 (virtually at the beginning of the 60's) as an artists' initiative. Now it is a Foundation with a board. There is also an advisory board with art critics, and qualified artists. In the beginning it was composed of visual artists who shared their presses, knowledge, and views on visual art.

What is your workshop like physically?
Studio : 500 m2, 15 presses, silkscreen, etching, lithography, relief printing, foto-etching. We are now starting in 44-inch-wide digital printing. All environmentally friendly! Sponsored mainly by the City council of Amsterdam

What is the neighbourhood like?
In the old centre of Amsterdam called 'de Jordaan' where most of the contemporary visual art gallerys and institutions are located.

How many staff do you have working currently?
Two technical assistants
One administrator
One coordinator

How many artists can work at the same time?
About 15

Do you have other activities besides printmaking, such as classes, exhibits, etc?
Introduction courses silkscreen,master classes photo etching (started with the help of Edinburgh Printmakers).
We have an alliance with a visual art school (they stop more and more traditional printing) one day a week we are open for students of Rietveld Academy for visual art.
We have also begun an 'Artist in Residence' programme. Thus far we have hosted artists from Japan, California, Indonesia, and Surinam.

Are you print publishers, as well? Do you sell prints?
No. We don't have a selling gallery, or selling stock.
Sometimes we sell prints to sponsors to fund our projects.

If you had to start again, what would you do differently?
We would start earlier with the combination of open studio for professional graphic artists combined with collaborative work with individual artists. Our external advisory board invites the last. This works very well and gives the studio a quality standard. Over the years we have become involved in environmentally-friendly printing and now we have a professional staff.

Is your workshop unique or different from the others? In what ways?
'Of course we are unique. In Holland there are about 15 studios' that work with a board and are subsidized by the city councils. Only about five studios work like us with a paid and professional staff.

How are artists selected to work at your atelier? Who decides if they're professional enough? How do foreign artists apply?
Every artist who is professional visual artist and who knows how to use the presses is welcome. This works the same with foreign artists. These artists have to pay the normal fee for the use of the studio and materials they use. Some artists are invited by our external advisory board (They don't have to pay the fee for working in the studio and get individual support from the staff). Every artist can ask for it by sending CV documentation, and a request.

We the staff decide who is professional who is not. It is not a thorough selection. We are not the 'printing or visual art police.' A professional attitude is important; we don't judge, images, etc. (The advisory board does for projects and requests!)

In this way we remain a professional studio and have the possibility to refuse people who 'like to work as amateurs in their spare time.'

What is your method of working with artists?
We are responsible for good facilities and a good atmosphere. The artists are responsible for handling the presses in a good way and for their own printing. So artists work for themselves. The technical staff has two jobs: first to look after the facilities in the studio and answer small regular questions. Then, secondly, to work on a collaborative basis with artists selected by the advisory board.

What artists have you worked with?
Known in Holland. But not world famous. The artists are visual artists mostly working in multi-disciplines.

How do you feel about the current moment in printmaking? Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Why?
Very optimistic. Art schools are closing their print studios. Young artists know less about printmaking. Big digital printers are better and better and become cheaper and cheaper. At this moment we are testing an Epson 9600 Pro for printing but more important for making films for silkscreen, plate litho and photo etching.

What do you think are the major issues the community of printmakers needs to address?

I/ To make an interesting and experimental environment where traditional and digital imaging are not two separate worlds but work together.

II/ Printmaking makes it possible to spread visual art in our society. Engagement in visual art is important nowadays and printmaking can play a role in it because the art pieces are less expensive and can be better distributed in the world because of the possibility of publishing editions.

Do you have norms for the editions done in your workshop? What are they? What do you consider the numerical limit for a true limited edition? Or does the limit vary according to the different print media?

Yes and no. It depends completely upon the artistic project in question. We like editions up to 20 in signed and limited prints. But, as I said, we are not the 'printing police.'

What's the best thing about running a printmaking workshop? And the worst?
It is one of the few spaces where artists really work together or in each other's neighbourhood. The worst is the funding of the studio, which is always a problem.

Regarding the marketplace, who buys limited-edition fine-art prints?
We don't sell prints. The artists do, they are responsible for exploring the market. Besides in gallerie, many artists sell them to companies who rent the prints out to the offices of business companies. Holland has many art-libraries where you can rent visual art either as an individual or as a company.

What do you think might be done to make art buyers more aware of the true limited-edition fine-art print?
Nothing. We are not the 'printed art police'. It is a market problem the artists has to solve themselves. What is the price of a fake 'Warhol'? How many side-editions did the artist or fakers make? Nowadays the prices of photography are high and what you see is that photographers, galleries sometimes do what they like and print a new edition. Or Photoshop something in the original and make a new original. It is very interesting. It can be a part of a visual art project to cheat the public. But cheating is cheating

What is your opinion of the current upsurge of digital fine-art prints?
Digital printing is an important new tool for the artists. Like many other new tools. So nothing special. We are focussed on having both the traditional and new tools in the studio so that the artists can use the tools they want. Facilitating artists in their experiments and development; that's what we want to do.

Can the traditional hand-pulled print "coexist peacefully" with the digital print?
Yes, the colour brightness of digital prints will never be the same with the hand-pulled print.

What are your principal sources of information about the world of printmaking?
The artists who visit our studio from all over the world and the Dutch artists who visit the studios in the rest of the world.

Where do you think printmaking will go in the next 10 years?
The strong thing of printmaking studios is its worldwide network. This network has to innovate. The chances are in facilitating the artists. So working with digital printing and traditional printing are the only way to survive. The thread is focussing on traditional printing only. Chances: make alliances with other facilitating studios or institutions.

Is it inspiring, working so close to Rembrandt?
It is inspiring to work in the city of Amsterdam. There is a very lively visual art scene in Holland and Amsterdam is its centre. Visual artists are working, experimenting with all the tools there are and trying to get their hands on the tools that are not available yet.