Japanese Woodcuts
Fifty-four 19th &
20th century Japanese woodcut prints.
'Woodcut' and 'woodblock' are often used
interchangeably to describe the same
technique. Both refer to a applied to
the technique of making a print from a
block of wood sawn along the grain and
to the print so made. It is the oldest
technique for making prints, and its
principles are very simple. Definition
and history of woodcut from the Oxford
Dictionary of Art.
 The
creation of traditional woodcut prints
are based on a delicate division of
labor between three craftsmen - an
artist, a wood carver and a print maker.
The artists puts his heart and soul into
every stroke of the brush and the
hanshita, a type of template, is then
entrusted to the wood carver. The carver
pastes the hanshita onto a wooden block
and carves out the wood according to the
black ink lines produced by the artist.
The artist creates a new hanshita for
each color and the wood carver then
carves this out on a new block. The
completed blocks for each color are then
delivered to the printmaker. The
printmaker creates complicated
combinations with his pigments and
manipulates them at will to produced
assorted hues. Each step of the process
involves the participation of each
artisan, working together, proofing each
other’s work until all are satisfied
with the final outcome. |
 Ethnographic Artifacts
John Dawson
Dorothy Knop
Thomas Moran
George Resler
Henry Varnum Poor
Fine Art Prints
Elaine Rothwell
Fritz Scholder
Arthur Secunda
Japanese Woodcuts |
