Irving Amen (American,
1918–2011), Pisa, 1958.
Woodcut on paper, 16
x 20 1/2inches. Jundt
Art Museum, Gonzaga
University; The Bolker
Collection: Gift of Norman
and Esther Bolker, 1995.22.2.
While this color woodcut is
stylistically Modernist, the
craft is highly disciplined
and precise. Woodcuts are
carved, not inscribed like
etchings and engravings,
which means that what
gets printed is what isn’t
cut away. A color woodcut
demands a separate wood
carving for each color and
that they all perfectly line
up. It’s a timeless craft.
M
oving on to artists just before and after the turn of the 20th century,
their prints of Venice and Tuscany show no reference to the rapidly
encroaching industrialization elsewhere. There are no vaporetti (Venetian
motorized water buses that serve the tourist trade) in the canal views, only
gondolas and sail craft. Florentine views could be from any time, centuries
before.
Fine art printmaking is a contemplative, quiet activity demanding skill and
patience. These are not mass-produced posters for the tourist trade. With the
exception of a (true to form) offset lithograph by Andy Warhol (well, and two
photographs), everything in the show is a true fine art print, thus supporting
the idea that everything doesn’t have to be made as fast as possible, or that we
need a power tool for every single human endeavor. In the long run, slower
may actually be Better.
Endnotes
1 . The Gonzaga Art Department has a very well-equipped printmaking studio.
2 . The traditional Grand Tour was no quick sightseeing trip. Getting there for the Grand Tour was by no means easy. One could
get seasick crossing the Channel. Once on the Continent, there were two ways to Italy: taking a ship from Marseilles or overland
and crossing the Alps. On the Mediterranean there were seasickness and Barbary Pirates. On land there were brigands. To get over
the pass the carriage would have to be taken apart, carried over, and reassembled on the other side. A carriage road over the Mt.
Cenis Pass was built by Napoleon between 1806 and 1810.
3 . Members of the British aristocracy were major art collectors. Numbers of their former holdings now reside in American
museums.
4 . The Grand Tour had no fixed itinerary and could include cities in other regions and other parts of Italy, notably Naples and
Sicily.
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE