[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Monday, 15 June 1998 Volume 03 : Number 183 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie) Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 10:44:35 -0400 Subject: [Baren 932] Thanks to everyone who has written me with kind words about my work in the latest Encylopedia entry. Unkind words would also be appreciated. More thanks are owed to Dave for putting it all together in such a neat little package. I had never seen close-ups of my own cutting until Dave scanned them and made them available for all... Hurrah! *** I just returned from several days in Boston, Massachusetts. I made a visit to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts yesterday and came across a couple of interesting printmaking things: Firstly, the MFA is now running a small show entitled "Beauty Contest: Quality in Prints"... What one finds here are varied samples of prints from many of the greats (Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Whistler etc.). What are generally displayed is a copy of a print from early in the edition and one from much later (in one case, Durer's famous "Adam and Eve" engraving), an early state with a later state (corrected trial proofs and final states from Kollwitz), or the actual printing matrix with several of its printed versions (the boxwood block for Gaugin's "Nave Nave Fenua" with two versions of the print). The strangest thing on view was a hand-coloured Durer woodcut. The curator claims that this was a common practice in Durer's day, but one hesitates to even imagine such a thing now. The coloured print-- "Christ Bearing the Cross" (1499)-- displayed next to an unadulterated copy, was ghastly. The balance of Durer's lines and tones was completely destroyed by "filling in the lines". There were some lovely Goltzius chiaroscuro woodcuts there, as well. The exhibit is well worth a look should any of you be in the area. Also on view at the MFA is a show of contemporary Japanese printmakers. A lovely woodblock still life by Onchi Koshiro is there (1947's "Object a l'ombre"). Extremely interesting were the woodblock prints by Tajima Hirojuki, who is using oil based lacquers and paints as a resist for the water-based textile dyes with which he prints. Sla/inte, James Mundie, Philadelphia USA ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V3 #183 ***************************