/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13872824]

What happened to woodcuts?
I miss those things.

[Anonymous No.13873663]

>>13872824
people invented easier ways to print pictures

[Anonymous No.13873682]

>>13872824
so cool. i have some novels with woodcut illustrations but i avoided looking at them even though they're probably interesting

[Anonymous No.13873698]

I fucking love woodcuts, linocuts, any sort of cut is good in my book. Recently found some Brazilian stuff that albeit very simplistic, somehow touches me deeply.

[Anonymous No.13873717]

>>13873682
You're missing out, anon.

[Anonymous No.13873728]

>>13872824

The form is alive, but it is used to post simple/modern band flyers and such things. The ornate "late renaissance/early-modern" woodcut, as I will clumsily call it, is a dead form.

t. very knowledgeable on M.C. Escher's printmaking via one of my favorite art books (the two techniques that he settled on for the better part of his output were the woodcut (especially earlier) and the lithograph (a subtler technique which lets you render "greys"), with dalliances into the mezzotint, an arcane process. I also went to a college where a studio art professor specialized in printmaking. I did not take any studio art (and so I was never in his class) but he ran the art wing's side gallery which I visited a time or two, and so I couldn't help but be aware of him, also through my personal art-historical interests.

[Anonymous No.13873730]

>>13873728
what is the book name? do you have any others in the same subject to recommend

[Anonymous No.13873748]

>>13873698

This type of line is characteristic of "modern" line in woodcuts, an easier production along the lines of the "living" form that I just referred to. As an Escher example, compare a personal favorite from his early period: St. Francis (ministering to the birds). Note the moderate detail in lines (halo, foliage), the alternation of black/white positive/negative space (coloration of birds vs. solid/air), and the stigmata. Escher also did much cruder things during the 1920s and 30s for money, which are very similar in feel to this particular picture that you've posted.

To bring it back home to /lit/, all of this is documented in "M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work", the single best book on the artist, which contains both a lively biography as well as a catalogue. I've been wanting to re-read it lately but there's too much else to do (read), naturally.

[Anonymous No.13873762]

>>13872824
Marxists ruined them

[Anonymous No.13873777]

>>13873748
This kind of Brazilian stuff is actually pretty folkish, I guess. There are some documentaries about it on YouTube but no subtitles so I can't understand anything being said, it just comes from some poor people in a desertland. I'll check based Escher, though.

[Anonymous No.13873821]

>>13873730

Answered above, I'll just continue a bit. As I've indicated I just know a little bit about the art history, but I'm not a practicioner so I'm just being a dilettante for a bit of fun.

But books on printmaking, itself, or the art form? I couldn't give any detailed advice beyond straightforward starting points, so let me at least do those. Literature related to printmaking is necessarily of a few different kinds: actual how-to manuals/textbooks (I am ignorant of these for reasons explained above), art history about prints themselves, and literature which invokes the graphical form of the print, or in this case woodcut.

For art history related to printmaking, any book on Dürer is a good start. Pic related is considered as one of his great engravings (as opposed to the above woodcuts/lithographs), a distinct technique (I'm pretty sure). I had the pleasure of seeing one instance of it in a museum about a year ago; the image itself was also plagiarized for the "Death" card in a famous Tarot deck (Rider-Waite), proof of its relevance.

For tertiary literature, one has a good sense of what to see about: any European literature from about 1600-1900. Think of Salem witch trials, the frontispiece of Hobbes' Leviathan, and the detailed figures of Gray's Anatomy. That kind of thing. Then begin to ask: who produced these images, and how... It (printmaking, engraving) was a quasi-mass reproducible form of imagery which preceded photography.

[Anonymous No.13873866]

>>13873777

And this picture, with its large black space and bold primaries, serves as a cute segue for one that really struck me lately: Picasso's take on a Cranach portrait. So again to the other anon: look for detailed art histories about Picasso and his printmaking activity. He was a total slut and worked in every medium.

Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell was also big into prints (and also stuck to primary colors plus white/black), but I decline to say more about him unless anyone is curous as he's the kind of modern that people instinctively hate.

[Anonymous No.13873878]

Last one I'll mention for now, back to Germany: Otto Dix, Stormtroopers Advancing under Gas. The image speaks for itself.

[Anonymous No.13875503]

>>13872824
Who are the best artists?

[Anonymous No.13875550]

>>13873821

[Anonymous No.13875812]

>>13872824
Woodcuts (and similar engravings, linocuts, etc.) are beautiful, from Durer to Gerard Brender à Brandis (still alive and working today: check out his books on amazon.ca). Here's his Morning Glory cut (he uses boxwood endgrain usually: I've talked to him a few times and have some of his handmade work).

[Anonymous No.13875837]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGDhay8MLR4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9KXgiyDAc

[Anonymous No.13875847]

>>13873878
Dix is fantastic, though those works are intaglio, done on metal plates: etching, dry point and aquatint combinations. I've done intaglio, lithograph, and a few other types of prints.

[Anonymous No.13876038]

>>13873777
Based, anon. May I suggest you check out Gilvan Samico? He's inspired by the stuff you've posted but had academic training in painting.

[Anonymous No.13876185]

>>13873748
Huh, this is actually pretty interesting, thanks. I might pick up the book sometime. I actually went to the Escher Museum last summer when I was in Holland, would definitely recommend a visit.

[Anonymous No.13876201]

>>13873748
>>13873777
>>13873866
You know what? While digging through the mud, Sometime I really like /lit/ when people actually have a conversation on a relatively obscure subject.

[Anonymous No.13876218]

>>13873866
Also, I wouldn’t mind learning a little more. Modern stuff isn’t quite my forte, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

[Anonymous No.13876388]

>>13875503

Gustave Doré

[Anonymous No.13876468]

>>13875503
Albrecht Dürer was the king, and Gustave Doré the prince, but there have many fantastic printmakers.

[Anonymous No.13876485]

>>13872824
The British Private Press Revival of the turn of the century (18902-1920s) really revived woodcuts for a while. William Morris started it with Kelmscott, and then Doves and Ashendene, Vale, Eragny, Gregynog, etc.

[Anonymous No.13876488]

Get a load of these woodcut bugs.

[Anonymous No.13876515]

David Bull has wonderful videos related to Japanese woodblock printing. Some of you may like them. Here's one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ma5q9-lA0

[Anonymous No.13876517]

>>13872824
Some of my press books.

[Anonymous No.13876523]

Moby Dick has had good woodcuts over the years.

[Anonymous No.13876554]

>>13876388
The master. Everything he did displayed not only a profound understanding of the form but also the literature itself. I am very glad one of his carvings is the stickied image here. My copies of the Bible, the Divine Comedy, and Don Quixote have images of his carvings and they only enhance the experience of reading them.

[Anonymous No.13876626]

>>13872824
Two 17th century German engravings. I wish I had the whole book.

[Anonymous No.13876656]

>>13876626

Very nice.

[Anonymous No.13876779]

>>13873682
>but i avoided looking at them
Were you afraid that you were going to wear them out?

[Anonymous No.13877273]

>>13876517
Based

[Anonymous No.13877305]

>>13876779
i don't like illustrations colouring my conception

[Anonymous No.13877732]

>>13875837
>>13876515
Japanese woodcuts are gay. Real men prefer the european ones

[Anonymous No.13878344]

>>13877732
Is this from Orlando Furioso?

[Anonymous No.13878458]

>>13875550
>Dürer and Böcklin

[Anonymous No.13878615]

On the opposite end of the skill spectrum, here's a print I made.

[Anonymous No.13878721]

>>13875550

Cool! t. longposter

Pic related is the tarot card I'd referred to earlier. Note the mirror-image, same lines on the horse and especially the knight's helm. IIRC the illustrations themselves are not prints, but merely drawings.