Woodcut is a print or design made from a block of wood. The block itself is also called a woodcut. Since the 1400’s, artists have produced woodcuts that rank among the masterpieces of printmaking.
Artists make most woodcuts from pine blocks. The artist alters the surface by removing parts of the wood using chisels, gouges, and knives. The cutaway sections appear white in the final print, and the uncut parts produce the desired image. The artist coats the uncut parts, which stand in relief, with ink. A sheet of paper can then be placed over the inked block and rubbed with the back of a spoon or with some similar tool. The rubbing transfers the inked image onto the paper. The artist can use colored ink and a number of separate blocks of wood, generally one for each color, to make colored woodcuts. Each block makes up a portion of the picture. The artist must cut the blocks so they appear in the correct registration (relationship to each other) in the completed woodcut. Often the actual grain of the wood is used as part of the composition.
Woodcuts were first used in Europe during the Middle Ages to print patterns on textiles. By the 1400’s, artists made woodcuts to portray religious subjects, to decorate and illustrate books, and to make playing cards. In the late 1400’s and early 1500’s, the German artist Albrecht Dürer created woodcuts that achieved new heights of expression and technical skill.
During the 1700’s and 1800’s, Japanese artists produced many outstanding woodcuts. These Japanese woodcuts are known as ukiyo-e. The ukiyo-e influenced such European artists as Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh. The Europeans admired the Japanese woodcuts for their bold, flat shapes of brilliant color; delicate flowing lines; and interesting compositions.
During the early 1900’s, Expressionist artists created many fine woodcuts (see Expressionism). These artists included Ernst Ludwig Kirchner of Germany and Edvard Munch of Norway.
