Screen Printing in the Art World

Silk screen as an art form started with stencils made by Japanese artists that were known as “katazome”. This method of using a fabric stencil to paint images onto other fabrics is still used today, and has developed from a simple craft into an art form. In the early 1900s, mechanized silk screening was started by an Englishman named Samuel Simon, and silk screen developed into an artist's tool in 1914 when it was first used to make prints in San Francisco, CA. Screen printing as art reached its highest peak in the 1960s, however, when Andy Warhol created some of his most memorable works of art – known as “pop culture” art – by using silk screens and inks.