Only after 1945 did North American artists develop their own print style. From 1960, however, the works of Barnett Newman and Jasper Johns, Sam Francis, and Andy Warhol attained world stature and even became models for European artists.

Goya was not the inventor of aquatint. But it was he who brought this technique, which makes it possible to generate differentiated surface tints in copper etching, to its apogee. Great efforts were made in the 18th century to copy drawings and watercolours 1:1 in prints. These led to aquatint, a tonal gravure printing process which artists still prize today.

19th-century French printing is characterised by its great diversity. The Revolution, the Restoration and the advent of the modern provided artists with numerous themes. Printing techniques also advanced; lithography, for example, began to blossom. In works by Delacroix, Millet, Pissarro, Manet, Cézanne and others the Graphische Sammlung charts this development.

What is the image saying? What does it represent? These are often questions which are difficult to answer. For example, hidden in a female figure holding an anchor is an allegory, a personification of hope. In the works of the Graphische Sammlung [ / the Collection of Prints and Drawings] we may receive an introduction to methods of describing these images and unlocking their secrets.

Photography as a modern art mediumToday it is entirely normal to see a large-format photograph hanging in an art museum alongside a painting. This was not always the case. Only since the 1970s and 80s, after becoming an important vehicle of modern art, has photography achieved equality with the older medium.

Until the invention of photography and photographic reproduction methods in the 19th century, printing encompassed not only original printed works but was also the medium of image reproduction. Famous paintings were copied by trained artisans - often themselves artistically active - and etched onto copper plates.