Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work features more than 150 prints, preparatory drawings, and printing matrices by artists ranging from Rembrandt to Picasso, among many others

Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art presents Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work, an exhibition that reveals how artists have used printmaking as a medium of experimentation, revision, and discovery for nearly five centuries. Bringing together over 150 works by artists including Mary Cassatt, Leonardo Drew, Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, and Rembrandt van Rijn, all from the National Gallery’s renowned collection of more than 120,000 prints and drawings, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to witness artistic ideas as they evolve through trial and error, technical innovation, and creative problem-solving. Tinker Tinker is on view in the West Building from December 19, 2026, to June 13, 2027.

Unlike painting or sculpture, printmaking allows artists to repeatedly alter a matrix—the ink-bearing surface of a copper plate, woodblock, or lithographic stone—and produce new impressions at each stage of an image’s development. These successive “states” preserve a visual record of artistic decision-making, capturing moments when compositions are layered, simplified, refined, or entirely reimagined. Through preparatory drawings, states, rare proofs, and printing matrices, Tinker Tinker demonstrates how artists have embraced printmaking’s uniquely iterative nature to test ideas and push the boundaries of artistic expression.

“The National Gallery’s vast holdings of prints and drawings offer unparalleled opportunities to explore the history of artistic innovation. Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work brings together exceptional works by artistic masters across nearly 500 years, including rare proofs, printing matrices, and preparatory materials that are seldom displayed alongside finished prints,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art. “By illuminating the creative decisions behind these works, the exhibition offers new insight into the ingenuity and creative process at the heart of printmaking.”

Organized chronologically from the 17th century to the present, the exhibition unfolds through a series of focused installations that illuminate both artistic process and technical innovation. Visitors are introduced to the medium through the work of Rembrandt van Rijn, whose experimentation transformed printmaking in the 17th century. Highlights include an etched copper plate created by Rembrandt in 1656, displayed alongside two versions of the final print, allowing visitors to see how a single matrix could generate multiple versions of an image. Other works document how the artist refined his ideas and revised his compositions over time, including adjusting passages of light and shadow.

Tinker Tinker offers insight into the ways that artists across time have embraced the unpredictability of the printmaking process. A section devoted to accidents demonstrates how mistakes often became opportunities for invention, while another section focused on proofing and color printing techniques reveals the complex technical processes required to translate an image from concept to print. Progressive color proofs from the 18th century show artists and printmakers building compositions layer by layer, offering insight into the collaborative nature of print production.

The exhibition also highlights artists who expanded the visual possibilities of printmaking. Inspired by Japanese woodcuts, Cassatt created innovative color prints of modern women, including The Bath (1890–1891) and The Fitting (1890–1891). Preparatory drawings and multiple states for each print reveal how she developed some of the most celebrated images of her career through a process of sustained experimentation.

By the late 19th century, artists increasingly embraced printmaking as a site of innovation and artistic freedom. Works by Pierre Bonnard, Edvard Munch, Jan Toorop, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others demonstrate how the exploration of color lithography and woodcut helped to transform the visual language of modern art. One grouping brings together 26 impressions of Jacques Villon’s La Parisienne (1902–1903), allowing visitors to follow the artist’s evolving investigation of color, texture, and atmosphere across numerous variations of a single composition.

Another highlight of the exhibition is Pablo Picasso’s celebrated lithographic sequence The Bull (1945–1946), one of the most compelling demonstrations of printmaking’s capacity for experimentation. Across 11 progressively simplified states, Picasso transformed a naturalistic representation of a bull into a radically abstract image, revealing how addition, subtraction, and revision can generate entirely new ways of seeing.

The physical tools of printmaking are also a key focus of the exhibition. Visitors will encounter six woodblocks, a copper plate, a lithographic stone, and other matrices together with the prints they produced, making visible the material processes that typically remain hidden from view. One gallery will feature the preparatory drawing, woodblocks, and color progressive proofs for Gustave Baumann’s Bright Angel Trail (1930), offering a comprehensive look at the creation of a complex color woodcut.

The exhibition concludes with contemporary works that demonstrate the vitality and continued relevance of printmaking today. Projects by Nicole Eisenman and Leonardo Drew, made with the New York City–based printmaking workshop Harlan & Weaver and the San Francisco–based printmaking workshop Crown Point Press, respectively, highlight the important role of the technical expertise of master printers and collaborative workshops in present-day artistic practice. Drew’s seven prints made with Crown Point Press capture his exploration of abstraction through unconventional techniques, such as applying raw egg white to the grounds on his copper plates to induce irregular patterns of cracks and lines in the resulting prints.

Accompanying videos and interactive elements further illuminate the techniques represented throughout the exhibition, helping visitors understand how artists manipulate line, color, tone, texture, and composition as images move from initial concept to finished print. By revealing the stages between inspiration and completion, Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work offers a rare look at the creative process itself and demonstrates why printmaking has remained one of art history’s most dynamic and innovative mediums.

Exhibition Organization and Support

Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work is organized by the National Gallery of Art. Leadership support for the exhibition has been generously provided by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

Exhibition Curator

This exhibition is curated by Rena M. Hoisington, curator and head of old master and 19th-century prints, National Gallery of Art.

In the Library: Secrets of the Printed Image

In conjunction with Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work, the National Gallery of Art Library presents an installation of manuals and instructional books on printmaking spanning the 17th to the 20th centuries. Highlights include French artist Abraham Bosse’s influential 1645 manual on etching and engraving, Traicté des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin, featuring a series of etchings by Bosse that illustrate the process. These depictions remained relevant until the 19th century, continuing to be reproduced and reused. Nine additional editions, translations, and adaptations of Bosse’s manual published through 1770 provide a comprehensive view of these plates. Manuals from the late 18th and early 19th centuries demonstrate advancements in engraving such as mezzotint, early color printing experiments, stipple and chalk-manner engraving, and aquatint techniques.

A dedicated section on the Etching Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries will showcase British artist Frank Short’s work, including all three editions of his publication On the Making of Etchings, with a copy of the second edition containing his annotations and revisions for the third edition. The introduction of lithography in the early 19th century will be represented by works from Godefroy Engelmann, Charles Joseph Hullmandel, and Alois Senefelder, among others. Lithography fundamentally transformed printmaking by enabling artists to draw directly onto the printing stone, rather than transferring images from drawings to plates by etching and engraving tools, often with the help of a skilled specialist.

The installation concludes with a section on wood engraving, beginning with Thomas Bewick’s innovative introduction of the technique at the close of the 18th century and extending to prominent 20th-century wood engravers such as Clare Leighton, Barry Moser, and Hans Alexander Mueller. Because it could be printed alongside metal type, wood engraving became the preferred method for book illustration throughout the 19th century. Photomechanical reproduction eventually took precedence, but wood engraving continued to flourish in the fine press movement through the 20th century.

Curated by Yuri Long, special collections librarian, this installation is on view from January 4 through March 26, 2027, in the East Building Library and Study Center from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

About the National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, is the nation’s art museum, home to a renowned collection of over 160,000 works of art, from antiquity to today. Each year, the museum welcomes millions of people in person and online to explore art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Located on the National Mall, admission to the West and East Buildings, Sculpture Garden, special exhibitions, and public programs is always free.

****

National Gallery of Art, Washington, December 19, 2026–June 13, 2027

Printmaking is an iterative medium, one that empowers artists to experiment, manipulate, and revise their work as it evolves from idea to finished product. A printmaking design made in a wood block, copper plate, or lithographic stone can be repeatedly modified over time. Each new version is tested by inking the block, plate, or stone and passing it through a printing press with a sheet of paper to create “states” that capture the transformation of the design. Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work illuminates the printmaker’s creative process by presenting over 150 prints from the National Gallery of Art’s exceptional holdings of preparatory drawings, states, progressive color proofs, and final prints.

Organized chronologically from the 17th century to the present, Tinker Tinker spotlights a wide range of etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, and other works that show how artists have embraced and explored the possibilities offered by the distinctive nature of printmaking. Featured artists include Rembrandt van Rijn, a groundbreaking printmaker whose 1656 etched copper plate is shown alongside two versions of the final print; Mary Cassatt, who drew inspiration from Japanese woodcuts to create an innovative series of color prints depicting the public and private lives of modern women in Paris; and Pablo Picasso, who expertly engaged with both representation and abstraction in his set of progressive proofs of The Bull  (1945–1946) to demonstrate the medium’s potential for experimentation through the addition and subtraction of visual elements.

Other highlights include a vibrant array of 26 versions of Jacques Villon’s La Parisienne (1902–1903), which showcases his evolving investigation of color and texture; a series Leonardo Drew made with the San Francisco-based printmaking workshop Crownpoint Press, in which he explored abstraction through unconventional techniques, such as applying egg white to his copper plates; and the lithographic stone Jasper Johns used to print one of his iconic images of the American flag. Accompanying video and interactive elements allow visitors to visualize, understand, and appreciate the various printmaking techniques represented in Tinker Tinker.

Exhibition and Organizational Support

Tinker Tinker: Printmakers at Work is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Leadership support for the exhibition has been generously provided by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

Exhibition Curator

Rena M. Hoisington, curator and head of Old Master and 19th-century prints, National Gallery of Art.
 

About the National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art welcomes all people to explore art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Millions of people come through its doors each year—with even more online— making it one of the most visited art museums in the world. The National Gallery’s renowned collection includes over 160,000 works of art, from the ancient world to today. Admission to the West and East Buildings, Sculpture Garden, special exhibitions, and public programs is always free.