DOI Heft:
No. 392 (November 1925)
DOI Artikel:Platt, John Edgar: Notes on woodblock colour printing
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21403#0289
JOHN PLATT
its high traditions, while expressing in it
our Western artistic outlook. a 0
There is at present a great interest in
expressive line drawing. One of the
greatest resources of the colour woodcut
is the keyblock line which, being cut from
both sides, is unusually flexible and capable
of expressing not only outline but bulk
and modelling. There is also a growing
delight in the use of pure, fresh colour, a
most important quality in a picture which
is to enrich the unpatterned simplicity
of the modern room. In the colour
woodcut the freshness of the pigments
is preserved by the method of hand-
printing from woodblocks and their deli-
cacy is emphasised by the gradations
unique to this medium. 000
And then there is the modern pre-
occupation with pictorial construction,
with the placing and relations of planes,
shapes and lines. Woodblock colour
printing compels clear thinking about
pictorial construction, because the lines
and masses printed from woodblocks are
necessarily precise and definite. This
medium necessitates selection and elimina-
tion, the expression of the idea stripped of
non-relevant accidents, and so of its very
nature makes the artist aim for an abstrac-
tion rather than a literal rendering of
nature. a a a a a
The very care and fastidious craftsman-
ship demanded by the technique of wood-
block colour printing have a tonic effect
on the artist. It is well known that the
works of the primitives in any art, who
have had to study and consider their
material, have a satisfying quality some-
times wanting in the work of their more
accomplished successors. 000
We can only get out of a work of art as
much as has been put into it. In less than
a week we may cease even to notice the
clever, easily done sketch which looked so
jolly when we first hung it up. But we
can keep Fuji in Fair Weather on our wall
year after year and our eyes will be drawn
to it every day with a sense of renewal
and peace, because Hokusai has put into
it sixty years of devoted enthusiasm'for
organic design, and used to perfection
the exquisite technique evolved by genera-
tions of faithful craftsmen. John Platt.
" BRIXHAM, DEVON." PENCIL AND
WASH DRAWING BY JOHN PLATT
283
its high traditions, while expressing in it
our Western artistic outlook. a 0
There is at present a great interest in
expressive line drawing. One of the
greatest resources of the colour woodcut
is the keyblock line which, being cut from
both sides, is unusually flexible and capable
of expressing not only outline but bulk
and modelling. There is also a growing
delight in the use of pure, fresh colour, a
most important quality in a picture which
is to enrich the unpatterned simplicity
of the modern room. In the colour
woodcut the freshness of the pigments
is preserved by the method of hand-
printing from woodblocks and their deli-
cacy is emphasised by the gradations
unique to this medium. 000
And then there is the modern pre-
occupation with pictorial construction,
with the placing and relations of planes,
shapes and lines. Woodblock colour
printing compels clear thinking about
pictorial construction, because the lines
and masses printed from woodblocks are
necessarily precise and definite. This
medium necessitates selection and elimina-
tion, the expression of the idea stripped of
non-relevant accidents, and so of its very
nature makes the artist aim for an abstrac-
tion rather than a literal rendering of
nature. a a a a a
The very care and fastidious craftsman-
ship demanded by the technique of wood-
block colour printing have a tonic effect
on the artist. It is well known that the
works of the primitives in any art, who
have had to study and consider their
material, have a satisfying quality some-
times wanting in the work of their more
accomplished successors. 000
We can only get out of a work of art as
much as has been put into it. In less than
a week we may cease even to notice the
clever, easily done sketch which looked so
jolly when we first hung it up. But we
can keep Fuji in Fair Weather on our wall
year after year and our eyes will be drawn
to it every day with a sense of renewal
and peace, because Hokusai has put into
it sixty years of devoted enthusiasm'for
organic design, and used to perfection
the exquisite technique evolved by genera-
tions of faithful craftsmen. John Platt.
" BRIXHAM, DEVON." PENCIL AND
WASH DRAWING BY JOHN PLATT
283