Emil Nolde

Prior to New York and abstract expressionism, the hot bed of the art world was in Germany in its own expressionism. There were a few different groups going on at this point in time, die Brucke, die blaue Reiter, and Bauhaus ( actually more based on Dadaism). The members of die Brucke through experimentation made several breakthroughs in printmaking technique. Emil Nolde was one of those members. He made lithographs, woodcuts, and is perhaps better known for his paintings, but by far his intaglio prints are what stand out. Out of the entire die Brucke group he was the only one with prior experience in intaglio, and he kept his secrets to himself. It is known though that starting in around 1907 he switched from using copper plates to iron. Reputedly because he liked the shine of the iron plates.