collages of wood engravings on japanese handmade paper

Leonardo

Collages of Wood Engravings on Japanese Handmade PaperAuthor(s): Albert GarrettSource: Leonardo, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Spring, 1979), pp. 123-124Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1573835 .

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Leonardo, Vol. 12, pp. 123-124. Pergamon Press Ltd. 1979. Printed in Great Britain.

COLLAGES OF WOOD ENGRAVINGS ON JAPANESE HANDMADE PAPER

Albert Garrett*

1. Ordinarily engraving is done on end-grain boxwood blocks or metal plates of relatively small dimensions; nevertheless, ever since my student days, I have wanted to engrave on a larger scale than is customary. At the back of my mind, I have repeatedly considered the gross idea of the large engraving project 'Triumphal Arch', designed by Durer for Emperor Maximilian I and executed by members of DEirer's workshop and others [1], to be an outstanding example of what not to do. Yet, the large sensitively engraved silver salvers of the Renaissance are not gross; they persistently excite my imagination. I also realised that many excellent large artworks, such as the Raphael cartoons, would probably not have been improved if they had been made smaller.

Like most students of engraving, I suppose, I first became aware of the difficulties to be overcome when I attempted to make an engraving of a size somewhat larger than the usual 10x 15 cm. When I showed my first attempt to my engraving master, John Buckland-Wright, he responded: 'Ha, you have just missed it.' I was yet to learn that Durer's early student blocks, which appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), were only of the size 10 x 15 cm and that it was 25 years later that he made 'Portrait of Maximilian I' of the size 32.0 x 42.3 cm. I also gradually increased the size of the block as I gained more experience over the years. Now I use a block whose major dimension is 45.5 cm. This, I feel, was a necessary preparatory stage toward the making of even larger engravings.

2.

During the past eight or nine years, I have made a series of 23 wood engraving collages entitled 'Time-Line Development', which are numbered in sequence [2]. These pictures are considerably larger than those that can be made conveniently by conventional engraving. Figure 1 (cf. color plate) and Figs. 2-4 show typical examples from this series. The largest one in the series is about 180 cm in height. The series was made of Japanese handmade paper, a transparent material with a silk-like surface.

One characteristic feature of this series is that each collage possesses a background made up of a rectangular array of four prints from a 'key' engraving. The background, which I call the 'environment', influences my selection of the parts that are superimposed on it. This is contrary to what one generally finds in pictures made by artists. I think of this influence in much the same way as the influence of the natural environment on the form of a particular species of fish as described by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson [3].

*Artist, 10 Sunningdale Avenue, Eastcote, Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 9SR, England. (Received 7 June 1978.)

I began the series by making the 'key' engraving. First, I printed an edition in black ink. These prints were not used in the series. Then I made additional prints in black ink on cream paper for use in making the 'environment'. The four 'key' prints for each 'environment' were glued to white opaque Japanese paper serving as a backing.

From additional engravings on coloured paper, I made cut-outs that I superimposed on the 'environment'. As mentioned above, the choice of the cut-outs was made expressly to harmonize with the chosen 'environment'. Since the paper is very thin, the resulting cut edges on the collages are difficult to see.

The cut-outs of leaves in the collage entitled 'Plant Buds' shown in Fig. 1 (cf. colour plate) were printed in black ink on white paper. They appear blue or purple, depending on the light source and colour of the surroundings. In the case of 'Strife' (Fig. 2), the central shape was cut from a print in black ink on red paper. The density of the black ink on the red paper and the cream paper of the 'key' prints is different. In the collages shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the cut-outs are from prints made in black

Fig. 2. 'Strife', Time-Line Development Series, No. 7, wood engraving collage, Japanese handmade paper, 63.3x 90.0 cm,

1970.

123



Albert Garrett

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4':

Fi*. 3. 'Horizontal and Vertical Forms', Time-Line Development Fig. 3. 'Horizontal and Vertical Forms', Time-Line Development Series, No. 14, wood engraving collage, Japanese handmade paper,

65.0 x 96.5 cm, 1973.

ink on cream paper and, as a result, are less readily distinguished from the 'environment'. These collages have an appearance of antique silver.

The collages have broad borders as can be seen in the illustrations. In the case of 'Plant Buds' (Fig. 1; cf. coloured plate), there are a number of superimposed layers of buff paper on an opaque white paper that serves as the ground. Each layer bears a film of scumbled paint. The various layers are visible, giving the effect of an impressionist painting. In Fig. 3, the marbled border has parts that extend into the 'environment'. In Figs. 2 and 4, the borders shown were made by glueing successive layers of differently coloured papers, producing effects described as 'simulating iridescence' and 'structure colour' as found in nature [4]. The inner dark borders and internal dark areas are in black ink.

3. Ever since E. Ratdolt of the Danube School, in the 15th

and 16th centuries, used colour it has reappeared in wood engraving over the years. While the close-grained surface of boxwood does not provide enough variation to exploit the advantages of colour in engraving, pear and cherry wood, with their distinct long grains, and linoleum, with its porous, granular surface, do. Nevertheless, even with these materials, colour in woodcut and wood engraving prints tend to be flat. Hence, even in prints containing depictions of 3-dimensional objects colour tends to play exclusively a decorative role.

In the case of my large collages, however, colour does play an important role of its own. I employ many different

'"4.T E x

Fig. 4. 'Antique Silver', 'Time-Line Development Series, No. 3, wood engraving collage, Japanese handmade paper, 63.3 x 90.0

cm, 1970.

colours that thread in and out of the printed pattern to give the feeling that colour permeates the paper. This is aided appreciably by the characteristic quality of the translucent Japanese handmade paper. Light impinging on it passes through it and is reflected back from the white backing again to the viewer. The colour quality, unique with the use of this kind of support, simulates iridescence [5].

The fibre structure of the paper forms a visible random pattern that is made more complex by superimposing layers. The resulting colour presents a granular quality, and it seems to reside below the surface, as in polished marble, providing contrast with the more dense printing ink on the surface. There are two recommended viewing positions for these collages: (1) close-up, to see the texture and 'structure colours' and (2) at a distance, to see the collage as a whole.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

References E. Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ.'Press, 1955) pp. 175, 199. A. Garrett, History of British Wood Engraving (Tunbridge Wells, England: Midas Books, 1978) pp. 354-357. D. W. Thompson, On Growth and Form, 2nd ed., Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1952) pp. 1026, 1095. A. Garrett, A Design Study Simulating Iridescence, Color: Research and Application 3, 4 (1978). A. Garrett, Collage Works of Layers of Japanese Hand- Made Paper Produced as Print Editions, Leonardo 7, 37 (1974).

124



Top left: Albert Garrett. 'Plant Buds', Time-Line Development series (No. 20), wood engraving collage, Japanese handmade paper, 67.5 x 101.5 cm, 1975. (Fig. 4, cf. page 123)

Top right: Natalia Goncherova. Design for female costume for 'Les Noces', gouacha 43 x 23.5 cm, 1919. (Copy made in gouache by Kirill Sokolov from a coloured Xerox of the original, 1978.) (Fig. 3, cf. page 137)

Center left: View (looking east) of two buildings in the apartment complex at Vastra Flemingsberg, Huddinge, Sweden. (Fig. 4, cf. page 89)

Center right: Gordon P. Sharp. The original 'Fountain Light' in colored light. (Photo: N. Bichajian, Dept. of Architecture, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.) (Fig. 2, cf. page 132)

Bottom left: Peter Stdmpfli. 'Rouge baiser', oil on shaped canvas, 93 x 240 cm, 1966. (Photo: A Morain, Paris, France.) (Fig. 4, cf. page 97)

Bottom right: C. R. Dockum. An image from a theme in a Mobilcolor V kinetic art performance entitled 'Geometrics', 1971. (Fig. 8, cf. page 148)

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