Forthcoming books on colour woodcut

 

Readers will be interested to know that the cause of modern colour woodcut is advancing both in the United States and in Britain, with major books expected on the subject in both countries. The history of the subject remains little known despite often intense interest on both sides of the Atlantic. Contact between American and British artists was sometimes close and probably reached its zenith in the 1920s when Frank Morley Fletcher left Edinburgh College of Art to teach at the new Santa Barbara School of Arts in California and British artists won a succession of prestigious prizes at the California Printmakers annual exhibitions in Los Angeles.  

There is little doubt in my mind that it was a combination of professionalism, verve and showmanship that attracted Americans to The giant stride by John Platt (above, in his studio at Blackheath) in 1922. Arthur Rigden Read took another gold medal in for Cite de Carcassonne (top) in 1926 and for much the same reasons. By then the Californians had instituted the Storrow prize for best block print, taken by Allen Seaby for The trout in 1927 and Read for his study in affability, Nice weather for ducks, in 1932. The third gold was won by Eric Slater for Seaford Head (below) in 1930.

The British book on the subject is already with the Fleece Press, though I understand the publisher has yet to finish reading it. Not that it is long and tedious, but like Christmas pudding, it is probably best approached in modest amounts. Its joint subject is British colour woodcut and colour linocut from the very first small print made by John Dickson Batten in January, 1894, to the final masterpiece, Normandy beach (below) published by Ian Cheyne, the best of them all, in 1947. A roller coaster ride of history and artists, all the known favourites of readers are included and it promises to be as indispensable to collectors as it is to curators. If I am allowed further updates about either book, readers of Modern Printmakers will naturally be the first in the know.