In the main building of the Tretyakov gallery in Lavrushinsky lane in Moscow until may 15, 2016, the exhibition “Materials and techniques of printmaking. Woodcut” is held.
It features about 500 exhibits that allows you to carefully consider this kind of engraving, which is widely used in books, applied art and folk art.
The term engraving came to us from France (from Frenc. graver — means to cut). Cut shapes-plates, which are called “boards” regardless of their material. The technique is a kind of graphic art, whose works – prints boards on paper. Prints can be made convex or recessed, depending on, bulges or recesses from mold stained.
Woodcut is a type of convex engravings, in which “Board” is wood. Term came from Greeks – it derives from ξύλον — tree and γράφω — write, and is closely linked with the carvings.
Below you see a set of tools for block printing.
The picture shows one of the boards for prints. Board under the woodcut is primed, it is transferred to the pattern, then it is to be engraved (cut the space out lines and relief remains), it is applied with a paint roller, then it transfers to the paper to make a print. Form may be compressed or to get used to the paper.
The exhibited works span different countries and styles, and it is logical. The technique first became known in China from the VI-VII centuries. In Europe it arrives in the Middle ages, initially for the illustration of religious texts. In Italy, France, Germany and other countries then national styles are developed. In the XVII-XVIII woodcut has received a powerful impetus of development in Japan. And all this to some extent can be felt at the exhibition.
Another observation – woodcut perfectly adapted for the transmission of all genres of painting. Here and icons, portraits, and still lifes, abstraction …
Finally, the author’s style. Who not only used the woodcut for emphasis and expansion of visual possibilities.
As a tribute to the present day, the exhibition was provided with a unit with a film for lovers of cinema.
In other words, the Museum has prepared everything you need for a thorough study of the woodcut. We recomend to visit it.
Sources: Tretyakov Gallery, Popular art encyclopedia. / Edited Polevoi V.M. – Moscow, The publishing house “Soviet encyclopedia”, 1986.
