Joslyn Art Museum exhibition is Tour-de-Force of Woodcut Art

Written by Hugh Pinnick Sunday, 31 October 2010 21:37

OMAHA, NE.- On January 24, Joslyn Art Museum opened "Wood", an exhibition celebrating the history and unique characteristics of the woodblock print. The exhibition brims with no less than 80 prints, blocks, and books from the Museum’s collection and private lenders — most on public view for the first time. Wood spans an incredible 550 years of printmaking, from a half-page, hand-colored woodcut from the life of Saint John (from the Apocalypse Blockbook, ca. 1460) and 15th century works by the great German printmaker Albrecht Dürer, his teacher, Michael Wolgemut, and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, to contemporary works by Americans Brett Anderson, Karen Kunc, and Jay Bolotin. On view through 24 May, 2009.

Dozens of artists from the United States and European nations, as well as Japan, Holland, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, are represented. The Wood exhibition inaugurates a series of three annual exhibitions — Wood, Metal, and Stone — highlighting the history and aesthetics of woodblock prints, intaglio, and lithographs. Wood will remain on view through May 24 in Joslyn Art Museum’s print gallery.

No one knows for certain what turned late Medieval minds toward the use of the woodblock to create multiple printed images. The rise of cities and towns, a populace with means and desire, previous use of the method to ornament textiles, new technologies, and readily available paper all contributed to the block as disseminator of images. Once realized, its uses multiplied exponentially. Religious communities provided images of devotion even as carvers in the secular world produced playing cards. The printing press increased the block's importance, catering to an expanding audience clamoring for illustrated religious, classical, and scientific texts.

Today, although commercially long supplanted by other media, the rich history and unique aesthetic character of the woodblock print continues to attract artists, scholars, and the general public. Consisting of approximately 70 prints, blocks, and books, Wood is intended to serve these diverse audiences, providing both a primer and a meditation. The exhibition is divided thematically into three broad "ABCs":

• "Aesthetics of the Block" focuses on the woodblock's potential for graphic power, expressive intensity, and "legibility."
• "The Book and the Block" explores the block's 600 year relationship to word and narrative.
• "Color and the Block" examines the use of color, from hand-application in the 15th century to the influence of Japanese prints in the 19th and the broad use of color into the 20th and 21st centuries.

No material has a more intimate relationship with the human psyche than wood. Once living, endowed with spiritual force, it was the focus of some of humanity's oldest creative and communicative aspirations. An understanding of the block's history and unique characteristics reveals this unbroken link with the past, emphasizing commonalities even as contemporary artists continue to expand the medium's boundaries.

Visit the Joslyn Art Museum at : www.joslyn.org/

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