[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking.

Baren Digest                Monday, 22 June 1998        Volume 03 : Number 190

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From: Gayle Wohlken <blueman@pantek.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 09:17:05 -0400
Subject: [Baren 968] Re: Baren Digest V3 #189 

Baren,

James said, regarding the Osorio prints:
> Now that most of you have checked them out, any thought on the prints?

I agree with what you say about them, James.  Am I to understand
there is only one of each print available?  I found myself inquiring
about the same print you liked and not because I wanted to grab it from
under you, but I had forgotten which one you liked.  When I came back
to the Baren Digest,  I found you had quoted the exact number I had
just asked about.  oops.  

It wasn't mentioned what kind of paper these are printed on.  Do
you have any inside information, since you have already inquired?

The textures and energy in those prints are quite wonderful!  I agree
they look like book illustrations.  How about that fierce one with the
devils!!!!!

Gayle

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From: Roger Ball <beckorro@inquo.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 11:58:32 -0600
Subject: [Baren 969] Thanks and stuff 

Baren and brayerers,

Jean, thanks for the answers and comments--especially on the art.  I fully
intend to continue working on cuts.  Paraphrasing the quote in the
encyclopedia, I'm glad it takes a long time because I really enjoy it and
it is major rewarding :`).

Thanks also to Ray and Cheryl for their comments.  The continued pigment
discussions are fascinating and I already feel much more informed.  Sounds
like a great start on that encyclopedia entry.  It's mostly new to me and I
intend to try a few out even though I'm pretty comfortable using an ink
that I once thought was only readily available pigment.  Oh, to never be
ignorant... Transparency really appeals to me as does the easy cleanup of
watercolor.

It was interesting to hear that James isn't dampening his paper...I've
always thought this was a "local humidity" issue although I would think it
would be damper where the practice is used most.

Bought Rives and Stonehenge today.  It's great to have good paper!  To be
able to afford it!  I'll be posting the art for the next cut soon.  I'm 5
iterations and about 25 days into the drawing so far.  I hope to have it up
on my site by Monday evening.

Thanks and Cheers to all,

Roger
http://www.inquo.net/~beckorro/woodcut/woodcut.htm

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 11:36:49 -0700
Subject: [Baren 970] Hot dog 

To James.

The print you sent is more a wood engraving print ....Is it not?

Those fine lines on the dog are positive shapes and to my eye must have
been acheived by scratching the block and then when printing using the same
technique as required to print an etching.....Right? You know where you ink
and then remove the ink, leaving the ink in the recessed marks.....Right?

So if you are doing this, you are using the traditional method of forming a
plate by attaching, (glueing) a lot of blocks and cutting the design into
the end grain of the wood.......Right.

***

Dave will appreciate this more than others on the Baren.

Marnie and made that little sales trip last week and drove up to Campbell
River.
In that distance, 350 km, and 10 small towns we were surprised to find that
9 galleries were no longer in business, There were no new replacements.

With the way the economy is going there in Japan, Dave, I suppose there
will be some big changes in Art sales.

Cheers

Graham

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From: Sheryl Coppenger <sheryl@seas.gwu.edu>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 14:54:50 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [Baren 971] Re:   pigment 

> Was it carmine?    I've noticed similar things with the colour known
> here as 'yoko' or 'hon yoko'.  This is a deep carmine red, not one of
> the 'native' Japanese colours, but one imported from the west starting
> about a hundred years ago or so.

In my egg tempera class we had a couple of colors which didn't mix well
with water.  The teacher expressed it as the pigment being too light and
"fluffy".  He had us spit on the pigment instead of mixing it with water,
said there were enough enzymes in saliva as opposed to plain water to
help it hold together.  Quite frankly, it didn't do that well in spit 
either. :-)  I'm trying to remember what colors we were using when we
did that, definitely reds.  I'm thinking rose madder and vermilion but
I could be wrong.  And with the synthetic colors, your carmine and my
rose madder could be close cousins even though the classical pigments
aren't.

Now I'm going to have to go home and dip out some pigments and spit in
half and use alcohol on half and see what happens. :-)
 
Sheryl Coppenger

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 15:04:25 -0400
Subject: [Baren 972] a book review 

In the early days of Baren, Dan introduced me to Interlibrary Loans.  Since
then I have gotten dozens of art books from libraries all over the country
to review and read.  It is a great way to review a book before buying it.
I have purchased a few based on this preview and recommend it to all.

Today I want to recommend a special book and do so strongly.  

Do not let the title, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints, fool you.
(University of Hawaii Press, 1990, ISDN 0-8248-1200-X.)  The author, Helen
Merritt, has written a wonderfully readable history.  It is not just about
today's artists.  In fact, it says little about them.  Beginning in the
late 19th century and continuing to the '50s, the book continually links
back to ukiyo-e.

There are hundreds of wonderful tid-bits in this story of how prints became
an accepted art form in Japan.  

We all know prints have been produced in Japan for hundreds of years but
were always considered just reproductions, not fine art.  I did not know it
was only beginning around 1904 that modern printmaking got a foothold.  It
took many additional years for it to be accepted.  That story is
fascinating.  And costly.  In early 20th century militaristic Japan,
printmakers paid with their lives for their art.

One item I found fascinating was a paragraph on the baren, in which the
author describes a very large print Rapids (1928) by Yoshida Hiroshi:

"To print blocks for such a large piece two men rubbed with baren
simultaneously.  This required such strength and exertion that two
competent printers could not make more than five impressions without great
fatigue.  If the printers rested to recuperate, however, the paper dried
and shrank, making accurate registration impossible.  Yoshida therefore
used four printers who worked in teams, each team making five impressions
while the other rested."

And YOU thought you had problems with the baren.  By the way - only fifty
copies of Rapids were printed and Yoshida lost money.

Speaking of censureship, a show in 1916, as in all shows, had to have
police approval.  Merritt writes: 

"One picture appeared unfinished to the (police) inspector.  Then he
recalled that these pictures were called hanga.  Since the word can mean
printed-picture or half-picture, depending on the character used, the
inspector surmised that the word hanga must refer to pictures that were
only half finished.  Considering it improper to exhibit a half-finished
picture, he ordered the hanga off the wall.  He even went to the artist's
house and confiscated the blocks."

Can you imagine the FBI coming to your home for your blocks?  Then again....

My only complaint is that Merritt, except for Yamaguchi Gen, does not
recognize my favorite modern Japanese artists but you can't have
everything.  She spends a lot of time, and justifibably so, on the father
of the Japanese creative print movement (sosaku-hanga) Yamamoto Kanae and
Onchi Koshiro who is considered the nurturing parent of modern printmaking
in Japan.  Onchi was the inspiration and mentor to many of today's Japanese
printmakers.

Finally, permit me to quote from Chapter One - Heritage:

"Arthur Davidson Ficke, commenting on ukiyo-e, the prints of the Edo period
(1610-1868), wrote in 1915 that the art of woodblock was dead.  'It is idle
to hope,' he said, 'that real vitality will ever return to animate this
lost art'.

The art of uliko-e was dead.  But the art of woodblock was simple dorment,
gathering strength like a wintering bulb..........

Early modern prints fall naturally into groups:  those that reflect
deliberate intentions to perpetuate Japanese traditions and those that were
made by artists who embraced the art of the west.........Works in the first
category are called shin-hanga, literally, new prints......Works in the
second category were called sosaku-hanka, or creative prints."

I guess you can tell I am excited about this book.  It is a fascinating
look at printmaking in Japan and all of its movements, ups and downs,
trials and tribulations and participants.  If you want to read a great
history of Japanese prints and a good read, this is THE book.  One thing I
really liked is that it was easy reading even with all of the Japanese names.

I hope you weren't too bored with this book review.

Cheers.

Ray Esposito

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From: Gary Luedtke <GLuedtke@compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 18:02:35 -0400
Subject: [Baren 973] a book review 

Ray,
Indeed, Helen wrote a fine book.   There is a sequel which is for the most
part a simple listing of works, artists, dates, etc., also a costly book,
about $90 I think.

It was this book you're referring to that got me started in woodblock
printing, and you can go to the last sentence in the book to see why.  

I had the idea, I had the drawings, but nowhere could I find the carvers
and printers to carry it out.  Nor then, could I find any "how-to" books,
or even materials to get started.   I wrote to Helen and she was kind
enough to send me a list of half a dozen possibilities who resided in the
U.S. which I might contact and see if that would get me anywhere.  One of
the carver/printers she suggested was Keiji Shinohara, who was brought up
in Baren sometime back.
 
Anyway, I got my start with her help, and later, an inquiry to Richard Lane
of Kyoto put me in contact with Dave, and the rest is current events.

Gary

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 18:02:31 -0400
Subject: [Baren 974] Re: a book review 

Gary wrote:
>Indeed, Helen wrote a fine book.   There is a sequel which is for the most
>part a simple listing of works, artists, dates, etc., also a costly book,
>about $90 I think.

Glad you know of the book.  I have read the sequel.  In fact, I got that
before this one.  For the most part it is a companion to the first and as
you write, it is jsut an index of each artists work and a ton of other
information.  If anyone is addicted to such trivia about Japanese
printmaking, this is the book to have.  it abounds with trivia.

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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End of Baren Digest V3 #190
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