SCREEN PRINTING AND MONOPRINT AS A NEW LANGUAGE OF GRAPHIC ART: FROM REPRODUCTION TO UNIQUENESS

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine screen printing and monoprint as one of the key techniques in contemporary graphic art, which has evolved from a means of mechanical image reproduction into a form of individual artistic expression. The study reveals the specific characteristic features of this technique as a mode of experimental thinking in contemporary art, and defines the role of screen printing in shaping new approaches to the interaction between technological processes, material, and the author’s intention. Research methods. In our investigation we use a comprehensive approach that combines comparative, analytical, art-historical, and experimental-creative methods. The comparative method is used to identify common and distinctive features between screen printing and monoprint techniques; the analytical method gives the possibility for the interpretation of current theoretical approaches to the circulation and the author’s gesture; the art-historical method provides tools for interpreting artistic outcomes within the context of contemporary graphic art; and the experimental-creative method serves to the practical exploration of the potential of combining these techniques in the creation of a unique image. Results and conclusions. The study analyzes the transformation of the concepts of reproduction and uniqueness, the specific characteristics of the material printing process, and the shift in the relationship between the artist and the technique in the post-mechanical era. Screen printing is examined as an instrument for exploring the boundaries between the automated and the authorial, the technological and the intuitive. It is concluded that the combination of the technological principles of screen printing with the expressive properties of monoprinting forms a new model of graphic thinking, in which the serial nature of the process coexists with the individuality of the author’s intervention, resulting in a unique visual outcome. The research determines that in the contemporary artistic practice screen printing functions as an investigative tool that merges mechanical and intuitive principles of creation, establishing a new type of artistic thinking oriented toward the interaction between technology, material, and the author’s conceptual intent.