more gutenberg, less zuckerberg!

We are delighted to be hosting a superb exhibition of linocut prints by Norman Kaplan, articulating his lived experience of apartheid South Africa and telling the story of South Africa’s journey towards democracy.

Alongside Kaplan’s works, we are displaying archival ephemera from the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre, and the Borthwick Institute for Archives. The exhibition is co-organised by the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre, the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives, and Action for Southern Africa. It is co-curated by Olivia Reed and Marina Gentry Espinosa, two talented students from the University of York MA in Museum Studies.

On 6th March, we were delighted to welcome guests to Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print for an exhibition private view. Though Norman was unable to join us in person, he sent us some inspiring words about the power of print!

Greetings and welcome. I thank you all for coming to the opening of this exhibition commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the beginning of our democratic dispensation. I am sorry I could not be there in person, but I am with you in spirit and heart.

When I entered Art College, our graphics teacher set us a project. He asked us to write a short children's story. We were then required to hand-letter a chapter and illustrate it with linocuts. This engendered in me a lifelong love of lino as a medium, printmaking and type. All of which, I am happy to see, are a mainstay of Thin Ice Press. The story of the history of the name is a gem.  It is a great joy to see your beautiful studio and those wonderful presses, so marvellously restored and cared for. I cannot imagine a finer venue in which to present my work. I feel so close to everything you are doing and achieving. This exhibition marks a highlight in my life for which I am extremely grateful, proud and honoured.

It is also a source of great pleasure that it is situated in the city of York, which I know, from my years in exile, for taking a principled and committed stand against the brutal, racist policies of the apartheid government of South Africa and strongly supporting the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the liberation struggle. 

As regards the aims and objectives of Thin Ice, I am in total accord with the sentiments expressed by your director Helen Smith:

"What we have here is working equipment. What we really care about is that it is all very well preserving the materials, it's all very well preserving the presses and the type, but if you don't have the people who know how to use them and are excited about making something with them, then you're not preserving the most important thing of all, which is the knowledge, skills and craft that go into making printing and all the heritage crafts what they are."

That is so important in this age of bland and soulless instant gratification of Artificial Intelligence that is beginning to dominate all facets of creativity. Art is an expression of the human spirit, of joy and grief, love and hate, of wonder, of things beautiful and ugly and above all of love. 

That great printmaker and humanist, Frans Masereel, said "Love seems to me the mainspring of a life worth living. Loving another is only a beginning, one must love as much as possible, and in such a way that one can hate strongly what is not worthy of being loved."

No algorithm can give love or the experience of a life lived. 

I say let's have more GUTENBERG and less ZUCKERBERG! 

I'd be remiss if I did not mention the powerful role printmaking has had in the struggle for truth and social justice against racism, oppression, inequality and fascism. Having been expelled from art school 60 years ago for making prints critical of the South African apartheid government, it saddens and angers me that artists are today facing expulsion, vilification, gaol and even death for showing solidarity with the Palestinians facing genocide by the apartheid state of Israel. 

Finally I'd like to purloin two quotes, again from Frans Masereel:

"I don't like to speak of myself. I prefer to leave this to my works, which I believe faithfully reflect my nature, my dreams and my development."

And on a series of well received exhibitions he held....

"... they are so important to me and do me so much good that I can't find words to tell you....yet it seems to me that I've grown three metres, it also seems to me that I am a better man. But what I am sure of is that this is for me the finest reward and the most wonderful springboard for leaping joyously forward."

I would like to express my profound thanks to all who made this possible. And, of course, all at Thin Ice Press for hosting the event, and whose achievements in keeping printmaking alive are so admirable. May you go from strength to strength. All power to your presses!

We’re hugely inspired by Norman’s words and by the exhibition — and we hope the slogan of ‘More Gutenberg, Less Zuckerberg!’ will catch on. To that end, visitors to the exhibition are invited to print a souvenir postcard.