Studio Prints: An Artists’ Workshop

6 Jun – 13 Sep 2026
Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery

Discover the world of Dorothea Wight and Marc Balakjian’s London Printmaking Studio. 

This display of prints by artists including Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Paula Rego celebrates the little-known story of the lively printmaking workshop established in London in 1968 by Dorothea Wight (1944-2013), who was later joined in 1974 by her future husband Marc Balakjian (1940-2017).

What had begun as a private workshop, created by Wight so that she could print her own works after leaving the Slade School of Art, soon transformed into a dynamic meeting place for artists, establishing Studio Prints as a legendary London printmaking workshop.

Coinciding with a resurgence of interest in printmaking in the 1960s and 1970s, Wight and Balakjian collaborated with artists such as Auerbach, Freud, Leon Kossoff, Rego, and Celia Paul, some of whom became close friends.

This display marks the recent acquisition of a group of proof impressions by these celebrated London-based artists, allocated to The Courtauld by HM Government under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. 

The programme of displays in the Drawings Gallery is generously supported by the International Music and Art Foundation, with additional support from James Bartos.

This display is included in the Permanent Collection or Permanent Collection + Exhibition ticket. Tickets go on sale in 2026. Sign up to our newsletter to be among the first to hear about exhibitions, events and news.