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Latin "sēricum" (silk) and Greek "graphein" (to write or draw).
Seri-graphy.
Serigraphy, more commonly known as silk screening, screen printing or serigraph printing, is a stencil-based printing process in which ink is forced through a fine screen onto the material beneath, like shirts, paper, and totes. The main advantages of screen printing is its unique visual result. Also its really fun.
The inks used are very durable, vivd and easy to apply making this a unique reproduction technique and in some cases a higher quality output than digital prints.
Screen-printing originated in China during the Song Dynasty (960- 1279 AD) as a way of transferring designs onto fabrics. Japan was one of the first Asian countries to start make recognizable forms of screen printing.
Stencils were originally cut out of paper and the mesh they used was woven from human hair, a process called Katagami. Ink was forced through the mesh onto the fabric with stiff brushes. The Japanese used stenciling techniques to create imagery on fabric shown below.
France began using silk screens to print on to fabric earlier in the 17th Century, although they still used stiff brushes to push it through the mesh. But it eventually led to the practice of stretching silk over a frame to support the stencils.
And in the 19th Century when silk mesh was more available to be traded from Asia, it proved to be a profitable outlet for the medium. It grew in traction and popularity around Europe.
In the early 1900s, squeegees were formed and used as a way of pulling ink through the screen mesh. Roy Beck, Charles Peter and Edward Owens are credited with revolutionizing the commercial screen printing industry by their introduction of photo-imaged stencils to screenprinting.
The screenprinting process was initially used to print interesting colors and patterns on wall paper and fabrics and then it was by advertisers for campaigns.
A group of artists in the 1938 formed the National Serigraph Society, which included artists such as Max Arthur Cohn and Anthony Velonis. This society coined the term Serigraphy. (a term meaning “seri” silk in Latin and “graphein” to draw in Greek)
As a way to differentiate their own artistic application of screen printing on to paper from the industrial, commercial use of the process
By the 1960’s Pop Artists such as Peter Blake, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg used screen printing, mostly serigraphy, as an important element of their art. This led to its popularity as a medium for creating contemporary artworks.
