Block, Ink, and Pressure

How do these artists carve new paths through block printmaking?

What do posters, graphic T-shirts, and greeting cards have in common? They’re all made using printmaking techniques. Printmaking is a medium in which an image is transferred from one surface to another using pigment. The image, or print, is reproduced, and when it is reproduced more than once, the collected works are called an edition. Each version is an artwork on its own—even if the artist makes hundreds!

Historians aren’t sure when humans started printmaking. But some believe that tens of thousands of years ago, prehistoric people used stenciling methods, a technique used in printmaking, to record the shapes of hands on cave walls. They likely achieved this by placing a hand against a cave wall and blowing paint around it through a tube.

Today there are many types of printmaking. One of the oldest is woodcut printing, a type of relief printing. To make a woodcut print, an artist carves an image’s negative space into a block of wood. He or she adds pigment to the positive space using a brayer. Then pressure is applied using a press or another tool to transfer the inked image onto paper.

At the turn of the 20th century, some contemporary printmakers started using linoleum for their relief prints instead of wood. Today linoleum block prints, or linocuts, are common, but many artists still carve their images into wood.

A woodblock print of a saint in a cell with a sleeping lion.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Saint Jerome in his Cell, 1511. Woodcut, 6x9in. (16x23cm). Gift of Sir John llott, 1964. Te Papa (1964-0001-2).

How did Dürer revolutionize printmaking?

Master of Detail

People started practicing woodcut printing in Europe in the late 1300s. Albrecht Dürer (AL-brekt DUR-er), born in 1471, is one of the most famous printmakers. He worked during the Renaissance. Printmaking would influence his work across mediums.

Earlier woodcut artists used thick lines and basic shapes in their designs. Dürer brought a level of detail to printmaking that was completely new. He carved fine lines to create shadows and highlights in his 1511 woodcut above. Back then, refined images like this one often appeared only in luxurious places, like churches and palaces. But with the development of the printing press that century, common people soon had access to more images than ever before.

A block print of a woman.

SWOON (b. 1977), ABA, 2018. Block print, cut paper and acrylic gouache on paper and found object, mixed media (wood), 76x96in. (193x244cm). Courtesy SWOON Studio.

How does Swoon create depth in her portrait?

Space and Shadows

About 500 years later, at the start of the 21st century, contemporary artist Caledonia Curry was in art school when she started creating street art in New York City. Curry, whose work appears under the name Swoon, also explores relief prints.

In her 2018 ABA, above, Swoon uses multiple media to render a portrait of a young woman who appears to play the drums. To make the background, Swoon paints a colorful grid on paper. She works with dark ink and linocut printing to render the subject in the foreground. She carves deeply into the block and uses cross-hatching to create depth and textured detail. Swoon uses this image in other works, recreating a motif that viewers can recognize.

Today, artists like Swoon prove that printmaking can take many forms. They combine traditional processes and contemporary techniques to make prints the world won’t soon forget. How do you think Swoon’s work is similar to Dürer’s? How is it different?

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