History of woodcut

1. Japan 6AD
The woodcut came to Japan from China, in the wake of Buddhism, in the sixth
century A.D. The early Japanese woodcuts were also religious in subject matter. It
was not until the 17th century that a more highly developed art began to come forth.

4. Hiroshige Ukiyo-e 1797-1858

6. "Of all the forms of expression in printmaking, the
woodcut is the most ancient. Its early beginnings
in Egypt and China came from the use of wooden
stamps designed to make symbolic or decorative
impressions in clay and wax. With the
development of paper on the Chinese mainland in
the second century A.D., the stamping devices
gradually evolved into wood blocks.
As plank wood was utilized by the artist and the
craftsman, he was able to cut and print more
sophisticated and complex designs. Many of the
earliest images were for popular Buddhist
religious use. (Ross & Romano's The Complete Relief
Print, 1974, The Free Press N.Y.)
Woodcuts:
The Most Ancient Form of Printmaking

7. “In the Well of the Great Wave Kanagawa” Katsushika Hokusai 1760-1849

8. Post Impressionists
The Japanese printmaker's concept of the symbolism of
subject matter, asymmetric composition, the use of flat
color, pattern, and line were a great influence upon the
work of Gauguin, Van Gogh, Lautrec, and others.
“Emil Zola” by Edouard Manet
“Princess from the Land
of Porcelain” by
James Whistler, 1865

9. Claude Monet
“Pere Tanguay” by Van Gogh

10. Albrecht Durer
Albrecht Dürer was a key personality in the
Germanic world of the end of the 15th and
beginning of the 16th centuries. His scientific and
humanist spirit made him play the lead in the
cultural life of his town, Nuremberg. He was
outstanding in the artistic skills of painting and
engraving and at the end of his life he published
treatises and essays reporting his research in
these fields.

12. The
Apocalypse
In 1498, Durer published
the first book entirely
produced by an artist, The
Apocalypse, fourteen
woodcuts illustrating the
Book of Revelation. Its
vivid imagery, masterly
draftsmanship, and
complex iconography
established his reputation.

14. BruckeGerman Expressionism

15. Otto Dix

16. Kathy Kolwitz

17. Karl Schmidt-Rottlif

19. Entertate Kunst
In 1937, an exhibition of
“Degenerate Art” (Entartete
Kunst) was organized by the Nazi
party in an attempt to illustrate
how the contemporary artists in
Germany were negatively infecting
the culture.
Targeted artists were banned from
painting, many were incarcerated,
many fled the country. The cover
of the “Entertete Kunst” catalogue
depicted a sculpture by Otto
Freundlich entitled “The New
Man”.
Otto Freundlich was arrested and
died in the Lublin-Maidanek
concentration camp.

21. The work in the exhibition was set up in an attempt to persuade the viewer
that these artists were perverse and a danger to the culture because they
supposedly glorified “inferior” racial types.
For example- prints by Karl Schmidt-Rottluf were displayed next to
photographs of people with deformities in an attempt to illustrate this point.

23. Jim Dine

25. Anselm Kiefer

29. Bus/Large Scale
Woodcuts
Lisa Bulawsky's Printmaking
elective class designed a
woodcut plate to be printed
onto a magnet using the
weight of the bus and then
to be attached to the bus as
a form of public art.

31. Crosshatch

32. Scratch Board

33. EditionsFrom "Art Law" The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers, and Artists, 2nd Ed.
by The Practising Law Institute Edition Size
Once a master plate is produced to the artist's satisfaction, the size of the edition must be
determined. Edition size depends on an array of factors, including the demand for the artist's work,
the durability of the block or plate, and the time it takes to print. When an artist is relatively
unknown, it is common to pull only a small number of prints; editions of twenty-five to fifty may well
be practicable. When an edition of any size is handled by a dealer, the price generally goes up as
the edition sells out. Edition Signing and Numbering
When signing an edition of prints, the artist must first examine the prints carefully to make sure that
they are satisfactory: any print accepted for signature by the artist must be free of all defects. The
printer usually produces prints that exceed the agreed-on edition size by 10 to 15 percent on the
reasonable assumption that not all the prints presented to the artist will be found flawless.
The artist customarily signs and numbers a print in pencil. The inscription is generally placed under
the image, with the signature on the right, the title in the middle, and the number on the left. The
number usually appears as a fraction, with the denominator giving the edition size and the
numerator giving the sequential number of the print in hand. However, if all the prints in an edition
are produced at the same time, it is virtually impossible for the numerator to reflect the actual
printing sequence; once the prints are dried, whether under blotters or under newsprint, they are
stacked and shuffled many times before they are signed and numbered. Therefore, the numerator
merely indicates a satisfactory impression in the edition.
When an artist signs an numbers a limited-edition print, the artist is affirming to the buyer that there
are and can only be as many signed and numbered copies in the edition as is indicated by the
denominator. Moreover, the buyer can rely on the fact that additional copies will never enter the
market and dilute the fair market value of that buyer's print.