being exploited by artists for its specific qualities, the process contin-ues to be used for industrial purposes, namely by graphic designers and illustrators for producing communication tools, billboard posters, logos, signage, packaging, etc. The boundaries between the differ-ent uses are porous. The 1983 directory therefore takes into account both commercial print shops which “do fine art screenprinting as part of their activity” and fine art silkscreen workshops which are “much rarer” and “often created by painters working alone or with a very small staff.” The term “fine art screenprinting” encompasses all the work produced within the field of the fine arts: prints, posters and “re-creations” of original artworks. The question of the originality of screenprints has already been raised. It was at the center of debates on printmaking during the crisis that hit fine art editions in the 1990’s. Françoise Woimant and Sylvie Bacot also stress the fact that the his-tory of screenprinting evolved along with the technical developments of the “ingenious” process which, from its “ingenuous” beginnings–to borrow Dominique Tonneau-Ryckelynck’s expression6–with stencils and other handmade cut-outs, became extremely sophisticated with the introduction of photographic techniques, insolation, research on halftones and inks, and finally digital technologies. These develop-ments were perfected for industrial use and then reappropriated by silkscreen printers and artists.

As a semi-mechanical, ultra-precise technique which allows for the infinite reproduction of images on all kinds of surfaces, screenprint-ing has been adapted by inventive printers in France since the early 1950’s to correspond to the aspirations of several generations of artists linked with different artistic movements.

The 1950’s to the 1980’s

Éric Seydoux’s L’Atelier was one of about twenty workshops method-ically listed by Françoise Woimant in her directory. A detailed ques-tionnaire had been sent out to all the screenprint shops that were in operation in France in 1983, and visits were carried out when possible. Without claiming to be exhaustive, she was delighted that “in this directory, a new light has been shed on a large part of the history of screenprinting in France.” In fact, the descriptions of the workshops reveal the important steps of this recent history which Françoise Woimant traces back to 1949, when Wifredo Arcay made Vasarely’s first screenprint. Three decades of artistic production in