Woodcut art and design

We looked at the images produced by woodcut artists in today's lecture. The image is carved in a block of wood and used for relief printing. This was most common way to produce artwork for print during the time of the Guttenburg press.

Vincent Van Gogh produced many woodcuts, and it was a popular way to experiment.

The first two images below were by Paul Bloomer and Maurice De Vlaminck. Although the first image is very naive, I prefer its simplicity. I particularly like the way the sun is depicted with circular carving lines around it. Reduction carving of woodcuts can produce omplex multicoloured images, by taking a print from the first cariving, then carving out the parts you want to remain in that colour, taking another print and so on. Because there is no going back, it is also know as suicide printing. Angie Lewin, a printmaker who produces such work, made the third print from woodcut, below.