Rembrandt van Rijn (1609-1669) is known as an experimental innovator in print media, who advanced the etching medium and sparked new appreciations for prints as an art form both in his time and after. This class will use the study of the themes, processes, and formal devices in Rembrandt’s prints as a foundation to explore the potentials of image making through print media. Projects are designed to allow students to investigate multiple iterations of an idea and to become acquainted with a variety of media and formal approaches while exploring a range of content possibilities. Students will learn how working within formal, technical, and material limitations opens a wide range of possibilities. A question we will be attempting to answer is 'Why make prints?' Phil Sanders, author of Prints and Their Makers, talks about how print media can be used not only to reproduce something that already exists but to 'create a world that did not exist before'. Rembrandt's work will be a touchpoint for this question, as will how Rembrandt's prints influenced artists/printmakers who came after him (including contemporary artists such as Nicole Eisenman and Howard Hodgkin).