Five centuries before photography, printmaking fundamentally transformed western art. In this lecture, art historian Alex Nagel examines how prints set in motion a new way of thinking about images as media, continually bringing image-making back to its fundamentals: lines on surfaces. Prints made images move like never before, launching new forms of fame, sparking viral memes, and building shared imaginaries. Prints reconfigured all other visual art media into a system, making it possible to imagine a history of art.

Free.

Image: Marcantonio Raimondi, The Climbers: three naked men, one seen from behind climbing onto a river-bank, soldiers emerge from the forest in the background (detail), 1510, engraving. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.50.56