Impressions of World War I on fine prints

Major events affecting the humanity have always had inevitable impacts on art throughout the history. The World War I that erupted in the early twentieth century left profound marks on the history of humanity and therefore, art history. In this study, the expressions of the World War I on printmaking which is one of the most important manners of expression of the plastic arts have been discussed. With the aim that the reader would have a better understanding on these works portraying the war and feel the horror of the conflict more deeply and intimately, they have been analyzed in terms of content and the stories behind them have been explained. The fine prints selected in this study show almost every descriptive aspects of the World War I. This was not only the first world war in which many nations got involved and many different fronts fought at the same time, but also the first mechanized war dominated by heavy artilleries that ended up with the massive slaughter, the destruction of towns and villages, and the annihilation of landscapes. It has been photographed and recorded the images of fine prints taken from the sources in the foreign libraries visited. It has been paid attention for these images collected for the thesis to be rare and hard to find. It has been predominantly made use of foreign-language sources. Key Word: Art, War, Printmaking, Propaganda, Lithography, Etching.