Food brings us together. Eighteen of us start our letterpress excursion with brunch upstairs above the Blue Bird Bistro on Summit (left) At one table a member ponders which future prints he will purchase for the dining room at JUCO. Another member talks about the Photoshop class she is taking. Her art making has been in studio spaces away from her home. Now she wants to combine her art training in one location at home on her computer with her photographs. One member tells about her art students squeezing clay with their hands. In the next room new members chat with others who love ink on paper. The program director lays out the itinerary. We exit to our cars and begin across the river. Our first stop is the Print Factory, 738 Armstrong Avenue, in Kansas City, KANSAS (below, left) Craft & Concept.(double click on images to enlarge) Jan and Karl Marxhausen (above right)
From the street level, we climb a flight of wooden steps to the large studio level. We listen to Jesse Mc Afee. He believes that the printing press helped build the middle class and made education possible for those who were able to access it. The Print Factory funds itself by building printing presses for artists and print shops, as well as backpack proof presses. (For more on Self Contained Outdoor Printing Equipment, click http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=1594&fb_ref=wp and http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=742&fb_ref=wp(courtesy of Craft and Concept, accessed Oct 13, 2013)
Cast type letters set in tray (BELOW), when rolled with ink, makes impression (ABOVE)
The Nelson Atkins Museum has paid them come in to do thematic workshops. Last year participants created prints for the Day of the Dead celebration at the Nelson, through the live demos by the Print Factory.
"Recently, we've been making wooden type. You will see some examples on the table, along with artist blocks and plates, to help fund ourselves and make on-site demonstrations possible. (To help people to look at a movable type printing press) and understand that THIS WAS HOW NEWSPAPERS USED TO HAVE TO BE PRINTED EVERY DAY. I think it is something that has been lost. To think about a whole newspaper, every twenty-four hours, being printed in this manner. The way information was been distributed.... When we set up at the Nelson, we tie clothes lines to whatever we can and that kind of became the drying racks. There is wax paper that people can use to make an envelope with to take their print home. On the back of each print there is a stamp that has the artist's name. And they can go to our website, Craft and Concept, and find out more about that artist." Jesse Mc Afee
I think that what the Print Factory is doing is very exciting, in that their mission includes bringing printing to the people --- whether in the form of building backpack presses, travelling to do on-site printing, or their efforts to get kids excited about printing. Paul Sokoloff
Print Factory artist, David Grime from South Carolina, discusses the control he has working with zinc when etching. When he engraves he prefers to use copper. Aluminum holds up better for doing a series of prints. Blue and orange stripes on top are done with a mylar transparency, after the etched plate has been inked and wiped, prior to printing. Print Society members look at prints from his flat file. Lithographs done in Tasmania by a friend of his. One is a a large drypoint and an etching. His friend Will Burnip was influenced by Whistler, says Grime.
We trek from the Kansas side of the river to the Missouri side in Mid town. The caravan parks and we walk a city block to 3121 Gillham Road. Music greets us as we enter the renovated office space.
With training from the Kansas City Art Institute and experience from working at Hammarpress, Michelle Dreher began her studio in the West Bottoms in a Warehouse Loft. She had room there to acquire the equipment she needed. Two years ago her sister and her purchased an office building. They stepped away from the Crossroads area to a place that has potential. This area is being revitalized.
She likes the idea of becoming an anchor to a community. They gutted the entire building and started over. The second floor is being converted to an apartment. Most of their efforts are going towards that. By next fall they are planning a grand opening, a store front space, window displays, a studio, a wood shop. The final goal is to have workshops there. She also teaches part time at the Nelson doing workshops. She want to bring that over to her studio. Four minutes.
The proof presses used by Two Tone Press are named after 80s rock stars. Such as, Bowie (her favourite), Lennox, Boss, and Lauper. Michelle Dreher explains the role of the machine to members of the Nelson Atkins Print Society Six minutes.
Michelle likes to convert hand drawn elements into carved blocks. Above,
linocut blocks used for poster for Nelson Atkins museum event.
Cast iron presses are both strong and fragile at the same time, explains Michelle Dreher. She uses her clam-shell platen for die cutting and scoring. Networks help keep her hundred year old machine in shape. Two minutes.
Michelle can usually figure out what is going on with her clam-shell platen. Parts are available for her Vandercook proof presses through NA Graphic in Colorado. The clam-shell platen is simple in design and easier to fix. 1 minute. Follow the sisters at http://www.facebook.com/twotonepress
It is so wonderful to see and meet these young artists who are taking control of their lives and careers in such meaningful and productive ways. It is a fantastic endorsement for their mentor the KC Art Institute as well. david n roxie mc gee
Bakker was a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, from the printmaking department in 2002, and has worked for Mike Sims at the Lawrence Lithography Workshop for two years. From that experience the two of them do editions for artists on their letterpress equipment.
Artistic development is a different mind set which Winka Press prides itself in. It sees its contribution as a hybrid one. Something that artists would be drawn to. An advocate for the inked impression both printer and artist seek to achieve. Tim Brown
Tim Brown and Cecilia Bakker discuss their role when working with artists. Four minutes. TB: As a part of building artist careers, it is useful to have the ability to do an edition using our press. CB: We mostly do relief printing. TB: Just a part of working with the gallery, there is development process when an artist does an edition. It is a lot different from doing a commercial job. Professional designers usually are very clear about what they want. And that is a very different kind of conversation than when an artist has an image and they are not really sure how to get to an end to it. Usually there is a lot of proofing, a lot of looking at color, and all of that changes the image. So, realistically that is a much longer development process.
TB: So, it's not about cash and trying to make money quickly. It's more about artistic development, and a different mind set. Part of the press is, we try to carefully, thoughtfully segment our jobs in that regard. You know, there is artistic activity and there is commercial activity, and that is how it generally breaks down.
CB: Around the corner you will see a print from Saskia Lehnert (above image). It was probably a two year project developing the image, working with the artist, and creating an edition. Those are long view projects.
CB: At Winka Press we have design print services, like wedding invitations, custom holiday cards. We also offer print services to other designers in the Kansas City area. Letterpress printing, and we do offer some retail goods, holiday cards and thank you cards, things like that.
TB: Cecilia makes art too. CB: So I use the same equipment to make a hybrid litho method. And this brings us to our motivation for doing this. We both like ink on paper. We both have hybrid backgrounds, both have commercial art and fine art.
Both continue to talk about movable type and pin registration used on the letterpress beds. The use of a fine art process that Mike Sims would use. Where the paper is hole punched along the edge of the plate to create precise registration in this process. Whereas in letterpress that does not happen, and you can get pretty good registration if you have a Heidelberg or high end equipment. Typically pin registration is not really possible. This is a great example of the hybrid process with both of our backgrounds. Five minutes.
Above, metal plate used for Saskia Lehnert (sister to Cecilia)
CB: The way is used to be made and now how it is made. They are able translate a digital file into an etched plate. Visitor: Using a laser cutter? CB: I think they use etching baths. TB: You know the traditional way of a plate that gets exposed, you print it on a high quality piece of foam, and then it gets exposed photographically, and then it gets etched away chemically. Visitor: Hmm. TB: So, you are left with this piece of magnesium, and it is mounted on a very specific piece of probably Russian plywood. So that is the kind of sequence it takes to make it.
CB: But then, just like letterpress we lock it into a shape, put it on the press, and run it through.
Submitted by Karl Marxhausen October 24, 2013
Videos shot with Luminx DMC-FZ7 camera Additional photos by Robin Gross Way to go Team !!!!
"The
Spencer Art Library collection allowed me to begin to see this
network emerging between Fowler and these artists, between the woodcut
society and the artists." Katelyn D. Crawford
Kate Crawford, John Mallery
Katelyn D. Crawford spoke about the Kansas City Woodcut Society and Alfred Fowler to members
of the Nelson Atkins Print Society on Thursday evening, April 27th. Crawford is the
Assistant Curator of American Art for the Nelson Atkins Museum of
Art. Video and transcript were prepared by member Karl Marxhausen.
John Mallory [JM]:
For
me, my focus and start in collecting American Regionalist Art, and
this program tonight is kind of exciting for me, it hits my sweet
spot. And the prints we are going to see later I think are some of
the finest works I have seen in the Nelson’s collection. Some would
probably argue with me on that, but that is my opinion. With
that being said, I don’t know who is going to start tonight..
Kate
Crawford [KC]: I will.
JM:
And with that, Kate Crawford. Thank you Kate. KC: Thank you. I feel like
everybody just sat down. And I’ll say you should probably get back
up. This is a small group, so that is great. Interject if you
have questions. It will be great to be able to let people look at and
talk about individual things on this table.
KC: So we're going upstairs after this, take a tour, have a conversation about "The 1930s in Prints" and get to see from the Kansas City Woodcut Society, which is a small selection from our collection, which I am a curator of. And it contains about thirty woodcut, wood engravings, lino cuts from the 1930s,
that were actually given to the museum early in its history. There was a large group were given in 1935, and then a smaller
supplementary group were given in 1939.In this specific group of
woodcuts, wood engravings and lino cuts, which had really intrigued a
number of curators before my time here. Beth Lurey was very
interested in this material as was Stephanie Knapp.
KC: And so, when I came to the Museum three years ago I was tasked with,
among other things, working on exhibitions in that American works of
paper gallery from the collection gallery, this is one of the shows I started to think about.
KC:It is a complex body of work for a lot different reasons.
Really exceptional prints, as John said. John [Mallory] and Karl
[Marxhausen] are both Woodcut Society experts as well. So, I hope
they will interject.
KC: It is an exceptional body of work, but
there
are a number of artists represented
that are not particularly well known.
And the Woodcut Society itself is not particularly well
known. Really,
it has not been particularly well researched and so, what I found was that a number of things in the
Spencer reference library,
could
help me crack open the Woodcut Society
story. And I am going to walk
you through some of those tonight.
KC: The story begins with Alfred Fowler who is the founder of the Woodcut Society. Fowler is somebody who is really invested in woodcuts from the 1920s on. And the Woodcut Society is certainly not his first endeavor in the world of woodcuts. He’s been working on this for a very long time. And so I will
hold up for you, the Woodcut
Annual For 1925.
Which is
a Fowler production. Self published.
KC: And he is putting together these woodcut annuals, soliciting contributions from major sellers on woodcuts, wood engravings, and
linocuts, as well as work by contemporary
print makers.
Walter Joseph Phillips, British-born Canadian No photo
3:11 This is a piece by Walter Joseph
Phillips, who, and
please interject John, Walter Joseph Phillips is
an artist who produces
one of the earliest commissioned prints done by the Woodcut Society
in the nineteen thirties. A 1932 print, actually. It is the second
print. We can check with you for confirmation.
John Mallery [JM]: No no. The piece is wonderful.
3:36
KC: It is really wonderful and interesting for a number of ways. But
I love seeing this Walter Joseph Phillips here as the frontispiece to
the Woodcut Annual For 1925,
because this is Walter Joseph Phillips working in color woodcut before he moved to black and white in the 1930s.
KC: And so you have Fowler following the careers of these artists, who
may be somewhat less known today.Not so much in the case of Walter
Joseph Phillips, but even the other artists that are represented. And he is really maintaining friendships with these artists,
maintaining friendships with print curators, making these friendships
with other print enthusiasts, including authors and cultural figures
who are engaged in the print world. Serving as a place where all this information can be pulled together. To create a community around
woodcuts, wood engraving and linocuts, really really printmaking in
the 1920s and into the 1930s with the Woodcut Society.
Charles Wilkins
Lucian Pissarro, 1863 - 1944
Margherita Callet Carsona
J.J. Lankes, American, 1884 - 1960
4:34
KC: So I will point out a couple additional things. There is not a
Charles Wilkins in the exhibition upstairs, but we have Charles
Wilkins in print in the Nelson Atkins group of Woodcut Society
prints. And we have Charles Wilkins represented in the 1925 edition.
We also have Lucien Pissarro here, which is represented in the
Nelson Atkins collection as well. What else do we
have? Oh yes, also Margherita Callet Carsona and Elizabeth Norton.
Who is represented in very different work in the show upstairs. But it is being collected here by Fowler in the mid-twenties. Oh, and this, J.J. Lankes, who we will get to more about in a minute,
is in this print Tranquility House,
creating
a print of Alfred Fowler’s house. Fowler is
developing
really close relationships with a number of these artists in the
Twenties. And is pulling together information about the historic
woodcuts and the contemporary woodcuts. So again they are really creating a community.
5:44
John Mallery [JM]: Kate, one of the things I was really impressed with,
when you talk about him establishing this network of scholars and artists and academics. I think what really surprised me was it was a global network. And so, a lot of people think of Kansas
City and the Woodcut Society was a Kansas City entity. Well, it was focused here and founded here.
But to think of him communicating with these people in England,
Europe, and Australia in the Twenties and Thirties. We think about
just picking up our cellphone and calling or getting on the Internet
and sending an email, but back in the Twenties and Thirties to maintain these relationships required pen to paper. And some of the
prints went out during the war. So, how did you get these things to
go out across the Pacific, when the artist was Australian, and get
the artwork here ??? So what really fascinated me about Fowler, was
what a global network he maintained in that time period.
KC: Absolutely. He is Kansas City based. But it is not a Kansas City
based institution!! One of the things I have learned, just to
jump back a little bit, even from the Woodcut Bulletin, which I don’t
think he had anywhere else. I think the Spencer Art Reference Library
is the only place.
Marilyn Carbonell [MC]: Seven other libraries.
KC:
You found these?
MC: I think there is a bibliographic listing in the World Cat. The
world’s largest bibliographic network, which libraries belong to.
There are seven which report having it. But I did not bother to check
the holdings. In other words, this is very rare.,I mean, there are
seven libraries out of billions of bibliographic records, this is
very rare.
KC: And as John said, it is ephemera. You know, some of these might
have been just keeping the two hundred or so members of the Woodcut
Society apprised of the goings on. But in one of the early bulletins, you realize that the Vice-Director
for the exhibitions of the Woodcut Society in 1933 was actually living
in New York City. So, not quite global. Although the artists
are in the global reach. But you really have Fowler working with
people across the country to organize these commissioned prints, and
the exhibitions that the Woodcut Society pulled together. And he is also working with a truly global network of artists. And Fowler, in fact, the print curators for the British Museum and the Victoria Albert Museum are writing a piece for the folios in which his commissioned prints are distributed in the Thirties. So he is reaching out to the network very broadly.
KC: He is doing that
as early as the Twenties, which I think is interesting. Before the
Woodcut Society, you have at the end of this woodcut annual the list
of Contemporary Woodcuts for the 1924. So he is distributing this publication
to artists and asking them to send information about what
they are producing annually. So he is meticulously cultivating this
network, by which he then found the Woodcut Society.
KC: And then we have the Woodcut Bulletins, which are either rare or exclusively rare. Which you can find in the World Cat.
Marilyn, but I believe you.
KC: These were actually unearthed in Beth Lurey’s office when she left
in August. Which I think is absolutely wonderful that they were able
to land in their proper house at the Spencer Art Reference Library.
KC: But these are a wonderful guide to the annual activities in the
Woodcut Society. And I think it was these bulletins that helped me
understand the full reach of what the Society is doing. And you’ll
be able to see that in the prints upstairs. They are not only commissioning two prints annually in an edition of two hundred,but
they are also circulating an exhibition annually. And each of
those exhibitions contained about a hundred prints and travel
coast-to-coast within the United States. Really traveled very
extensively. It showcases works of art by a much broader range of
print makers than the commissioned prints obviously can. And what you
see I think the commissioned prints evolve. Because the early commissioned prints are being produced by people, like J.J. Lankes
and Walter Joseph Phillips, good friends of Fowler’s. As they move on, they are being drawn
from that body of artists who are contributing to this exhibition. So
you really begin to see the way the Society is cultivating its body
of artists, that is has been distributing works by.
KC: In addition to that, the Society had a third aim of its mission which
was to develop a collection for a museum. They were really looking to build
a permanent collection of woodcuts for a museum. I think, for
most of the time they were working on this, they weren’t thinking
about the Nelson Atkins. Fowler was really thinking about a local museum, and often acting to
open exhibitions every year. He hoped to develop, what actually John Bender, who we will segue way to. Bender is a friend of
Fowler’s. What Bender characterizes as the comprehensive collection
of woodcuts, to display what woodcut is. In that contemporary moment
what is woodcut in the 1930s. Bender really wishes it could be
a 15th century woodcut, for instance, say, oh if someone had the presence of mind to do this, with the
historical works that I am interested in, it would be such an
incredible resource today. So he and Fowler are really looking to
cultivated their contemporary moment.
John Bender on Alfred Fowler in his Fine Prints, Vol 1, No. 9, November 1932, pp 28 & 29.[Image
for this post courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
Paula Winchester (PW): So, where did it go?
Katelyn Crawfod [KC]: Much of the collection came here. It’s complicated. These are on-going questions for me.But complicated by the fact in that,
in 1939 I believe Fowler leaves Kansas City. Is that the date, Karl?
John
Mallery [JM]: It’s Thirty-nine, Forties.
KC:
We’ll go with thirty-nine. Fowler moved away from Kansas
City. So in 1935 a number of those prints are being circulated in the
exhibitions are given to the Nelson Atkins. More are given in 1939.
KC: But I started to wonder whether, when Fowler moved to Alexander-Virginia or Cedar Rapids. I've been looking around to the places where he lived.
Did he continue to collect prints or prints generally? And give them to another institution?
I haven’t found anything yet.
KC: And the bulletins only go through 1936. So we have a sense of the
activity of the Society through 1936. But it is a little more
difficult to trace after. There are some news accounts. And then are,
again I put John, it shows through 1939. The Society continues in two
other locations. There continues to be commissioned prints and
accompanied folios, but it is more difficult to track the activity of
the Society. Particularly because Fowler is so interested in
the world of print making in so many different ways.
John Mallery [JM]: He had multiple print-related societies that he ran. The
Miniature Print Society.
KC:
The Miniature Print Society he found later in the Thirties.
JM:
The Print Connoisseurs Society is another he did. He was trying too
distribute prints for all these societies. And I don’t know how he
did it.
KC:
But I kind of feel, I think he was fortunate. He never seems to have,
we were just debating this, he never seems to have two hundred
subscribers. Which, I think, is the number of good prints he had to have in
every edition. So, as the Thirties move on, he begins to create deals for his subscribers. ‘Well, if you join the Miniature Print
Society we will send you some back stuff from the Woodcut Society.’ He is very entrepreneurial that way.
KC: And in the 1920s he is vested in bookplates. And I think that is how
he comes to this community of woodcut artists, really through
bookplates. We can get to J.J. Lankes, who is a bookplate maker himself. And so I
think some of those relationships are being developed by way of the bookplate society. Which is one of his first. And actually when you
get up here, has a bookplate for Fowler in this volume.
KC: So these bulletins are incredible in a number of ways. You get a
sense of the action in the bookplate society. Like, a list of prints
in the second circulated exhibition. Which is really interesting, because it doesn’t exist anywhere
else, that I know of. Although it may. I looked through the World
Cat, Marilyn.
Marilyn
Carbonell [MC]: Well, Yale said LC.
KC: Does it? Well that's great. But the catalogue, I haven't been able to find the catalogue of this exhibition.
KC: So even having a list of the prints that were in the exhibition is very useful. Because this corresponds to so much of what is in that two hundred and twelve prints (212) in the Nelson Atkins' permanent collection.
KC: So you can
almost begin to reconstruct the exhibition by what the Woodcut
Society is circulating.
?1932 ?1933 ?1935 ?1936
KC: It’s not perfect because Fowler did not
actually set aside a copy of every print in
these shows or the collection
!!You don’t get everything. And some of the bigger artists that
he is taking prints
from including Claire Leighton, are not sending two prints, so that
one could be set aside for the Society. But a number of the other artists are. And so you can actually begin to
reconstruct those exhibitions through our permanent collection.
Paula Winchester [PW]: So when it was traveling, the exhibition went
out traveling, did it go to art museums or did it, you know back in
those days, go to libraries and any place?
KC: They went primarily to art museums and galleries. And so I know
that Art Institute of Chicago always took them. There are some
institutions, it becomes clear to me just I am reading this. And part of my goal with this was to understand what woodcut is in the 1930s. Because that is a challenge. Of not necessarily what we think of as woodcut today. And I can talk about that
a little more when we get to the artists book. What woodcut is in the
1930s? And what is the community is surrounding those print makers?
What are the venues for displaying prints in the Thirties?
KC: They
are sending these
but they are much more committed in that moment.The Institute of Chicago
is one.But the
institutions shift from year to year, and John or Karl jump in here
if you have more to add. The institutions shifted from year to year
but they always traveled from coast to coast.
JM: It is interesting to note during that time period there were
other societies that had traveling exhibitions as well. The Prairie
Print Makers, the Chicago Society of Etchers had traveling shows.
There were a few others. So there seemed to be the trend for prints
to travel nationally.
KC: Certain institutions.
JM:
Some went to libraries, I think. I know the Society of Etchers had
pieces in libraries on the west coast.
KC:
Hm.
JM:
But it was a very common practice. It wasn’t just limited to the
Woodcut Society.
KC: Right. And it is interesting, or something I vetted interest in,
and this is worthwhile on account of Walter Joseph Phillips in
particular, that in the Twenties a lot of the prints traveling by
way of the Society were virtually segregated Black and White and Color. And there is something that Fowler is doing, that is
very interesting in the Woodcut Society, is integrating the work
of printmakers who are choosing black and white as
preferable to working in color.
Which does not seem
revolutionary to us today by any means. But I think really was in
that moment. So printing traditions were being seen as being in conflict in some instances.
KC: So the Spencer Art Reference Library collection allowed me to
begin to see this network emerging between Fowler and these artists.
Between the Woodcut Society and some of the artists whose work was
represented in the Volume Two binary puritan of the Nelson
Adkins.
KC: And I moved over there, because J.J. Lankes was an important part of that. But I have to go back to the Woodcut Bulletin, because when
I am reading the bulletin of 1932, the second bulletin I believe, it
promotes A Woodcut Manual,
which is J. J. Lankes' publication. Which we have here, actually
from the John Bender Library. That
is published in 1932. So,
Fowler is leaning
heavily on
Lankes. Lankes produces
the first commissioned print
for
the Woodcut Society.Which
we will see upstairs, but I have an image of here. And he [Fowler] is also promoting Lankes' volume,
A WOODCUT MANUAL.
Southern Skies by J.J. Lankes, 1932.
[LINK to A Woodcut Manual, courtesy of http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/011 04/011 04.html,
accessed June 20, 2017]
KC: And this is a really fascinating book. Not only because J.J.
Lankes has an incredible personality. But also because how it introduces readers to woodcuts. As compared to how Fowler wants it to
be used. Fowler really thinks it is a volume for anybody who is
interested in woodcuts, wood engravings, and linocuts. This is
a volume for enthusiasts. Whereas, Lankes is really aiming this
volume at immature printmakers. And so it is interesting where you
land in between. It is a little bit hard to use I think in that
regard, but it also very useful for understanding the transitions
this medium is undergoing in
the 1930s.
KC: And it really is, for a variety of reasons. Lankes had a particular take on printing in color as opposed to printing in black and white. He is really not interested in color printing. And kind of
thinks of it as degenerative art in the United States. He thinks
Western printmakers will never be able to rival the Japanese
printmakers in color printmaking. And so essentially, they should
stop trying.Walter Joseph Phillips would not
agree. But I don’t think Fowler would either. And so I pulled out
the Walter Joseph Phillips’ manual of color woodcutting from the
1920s. Just by way of contrast.
[LINK to The
Technique of the Color Wood-Cut, courtesy of http://www.sharecom.ca/phillips/technique.html,
accessed June 20, 2017]
KC: He [Lankes] thinks Western printmakers should not be
working in color.
He admits through a variety of tools you can use for print making. It really is a how-tomanual. Where you can order
your gouges from. Where you can order gravers from. Where you can
order your blocks from. Where you can get
a bundle of Japanese paper that is great for home printing making
that you can get for a dollar twenty-five. It is an incredible
resource. I’m
going to say I wish we could go back and do that. As well as examples of his own work.
KC: But he is doing it with addresses
to contact the organizations that provide the best print
making tools. So again, I feel like this is contributing to creating
that kind of community of print makers. It also suggests how accessible
wood cut, wood engraving and lino cut is compared to other
print making processes. And how important that was in the Thirties. Because you also get a sense that Lankes is talking to artists
who are turning to really print making in that moment, because they
can’t afford to do other things. So he talks about things, like
having previously made prints using shoe polish on paper that was
used to wrap bread in the Twenties. And how that was one of his
preferred methods for making prints. Which is hard to imagine for an
artist as well-known as J.J. Lankes. But the acceptabilities of
materials really comes through. And The Depression can easily be read
between the lines in this volume. As we are talking about turning to
woodcutting.
KC: You also from this volume I think can begin to reconstruct, as I
was saying, the relationship between Fowler and an artist like Lankes
by way of his work with bookplates. And then it was interesting for
me, to then see Genevieve Taggardhaving
a bookplate created by Lankes in
this volume as well.
Because she is actually
the cultural critic who
writes the essay that accompanies Lankes’ print for the Woodcut
Society in 1932.
Genevieve Taggard's essay on woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. Double click to enlarge. [Image
for this post courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
KC: So not only is Fowler reaching printmakers through this
relationship but then also the AUTHORS who are
authoring the essays that ACCOMPANY the prints for
the Woodcut Society. You can just see him building a network of
relationships.
21:41
Viewer: Hmm.
21:42
KC: And it is HARD TO UNPICK these relationships, because nobody has
really worked on “The “Woodcut Society.” Now Cori Sherman North
is. John is. And Karl has. But I feel like we are really it.
21:52
John Mallery JM: Yeah.
21:53
KC: Is there anybody else?
21:55
JM: You don’t come across any doctoral dissertations when you are
looking. No academic research or publications on the Woodcut Society.
22:03
KC: We are just starting to UNPICK THIS KNOT. So it is interesting to
begin to understand these relationships. Again as I have said, the
Fowler bookplate. And then there are all sorts of these wonderful
things, if you are a lover of prints, in this book that should not be
missed. As I said Lankes had a wonderful personality. He has “DON’T”
at the end of this book. For instance, don’ts for print lovers.
Don’ts for framers and matters. Don’ts to the shipper. Don’ts
to the exhibitor.
22:32
JM: Someone needs to.
22:33
KC: Don’t touch the face of prints. (laughter) Don’t roll prints,
to Framers and Matters. To the Artist, don’t touch the face of
prints. Don’t fail to check up on references when they are given by
an unknown person.
22:54
KC: He is giving PRACTICAL ADVICE I think in this as well. As much as
you can figure out about the network of artists with which he is
working. And again, advertised in the Woodcut Bulletin, so you begin
to see how they are working together.
[Image
for this post courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
23:08
KC: I have also pulled another volume from 1932. This is Claire
Leighton’s Wood-Engravings and Woodcuts. This
is not directly advertised with the Society. Claire Leighton is a
very active exhibitorboth
in
the exhibition, also
from
the Society’s commissioned prints. But I think this volume is
incredible, because
it further
UNPICKS
that
network of artists who
are all corresponding as
print makers in
this moment. It
shows how
widely
as
friends.
[Image
for this post courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
ALSO MAY AIMEE SMITH AND BIRGEN SANDZEN, next.
23:35
KC: One thing I call your attention to is an artist I did not know a
lot about before I was working on this show. May Aimee Smith actually
has a piece featured as an example, an exceptional example as use of
the multiple tool in wood engraving. On the same page as a Birgen
Sandzen, RIVER NOCTURNE.
And so
an
artist I
think most
of us are
probably more
familiar with, being
used in clear contrast with a woman we are much less familiar with.
But
SHE is as WELL KNOWN in this moment, and
is a friend of Claire
Leighton as
withBirgen
Sandzen.
And so again, getting in at some of those
connectionsthrough
these
volumes.
[Image
for this post courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
24:11
KC: I will say, this
is also an
incredible volume for a number of reasons, not the least of which it
is
that it features
reproductions
of great prints
from this moment. Claire Leighton also takes, this
is really a how to as well. A
guide for creating prints. She takes photos of
her pulling prints and really going through the steps of creating as
wood engraving. Which is incredible if you are trying to understand
the process, which was something I was up against as I was
starting to work on this show.
24:44
KC: This book is also wonderful being a conversation with the
J.J.Lankes’ volume. Again you get a sense of how this medium is
evolving in this moment. Lankes has one way of defining woodcut
versus wood engraving. And ultimately he sees woodcut and wood
engraving as a superficial distinction. He thinks they are all
woodcuts, one and the same. And he talks about using a particular end
grain block of wood to create woodcuts, using end grain block with
gouges. That is how he likes to make prints sometimes. 25:10 Where as
Claire Leighton has a very clear distinction between woodcut and wood
engraving. And she sees herself as a wood engraver. What is amazing
to me is, 25:20 perhaps not surprisingly, if I look at her prints,
feelings about this, it becomes so obvious visually. And undermines
my medium lines on some of my labels. (laughter)
Before
I get over to Marilyn, I’ll point to a couple of artist books that
I have set out here. Including The Farmer’s Year
by Claire Leighton, which is just
a beautiful volume to itself. But it is also another
cool example of these connections, because two of the prints in
Farmer’s Year, Apple Pickingand
Threshing were
actually
featured
in the Second Woodcut Society exhibition.
So,again you see Fowler
getting the best of the best. It
is being featured
in a number of venues.This book was published in 1932 I believe. 1933. And in
that Second Woodcut Society exhibition as well these prints were
featured.
26:20
Something else that was an important theme for the show, that I will
mention in the context of these two volumes and West Heller which is
an artist book. 26:29 very small by Helen West Heller. Where she
pared.
Paula
Winchester (PW): Love it.
KC:
This is William Carlos Williams. She has American authors from Ben
Franklin to Carlos Williams, pared with her wood engraving or
woodcut.
Suzanne
Geringer (SG): Could you read us that one?
26:49
KC: Sure. And I can pass it around so you can see it. “Many ways,
flowing edge to edge. There are clear edges meeting, as though he
thought in pity and contention.” And it is a lineman. Which I think
we can see another beautiful picture of a lineman upstairs by
Jessiejo Eckford.
27:10
KC: Through all of this I get a sense of HOW INTEGRATED WORKS are for
these artists. They are all, almost all, using their woodcuts to
illustrate volumes. 27:27 As well as stand alone artistic
statements. And there is a lot of contention about that, certainly in
Claire Leighton’s book. Whether woodcut and wood engraving should
be standing on its own as an artist statement or illustrating
volumes. It is clearly being worked out in this moment.
I’m
not sure if they come to any clean solution. But at the same time she
is illustrating volumes of the farmers here. Where she is writing the
text. A defense for agrarian life in pre-industrial England. And
creating these beautiful wood engravings. So understanding some of
those connections, and how they were functioning in the Thirties, was
what I was trying to do in this Spencer Library collection. It was a
wonderful resource.
28:04
JM: I think that a lot of the artists that gift the commissioned
prints were known primarily initially as illustrators.
KC:
uh-huh (yes)
JM:
I mean, that was research. You know, they showed all the book they
illustrated, but here is a STAND ALONE print, and intriguing.
KC:
uh-huh (yes)
JM:
The other thing I find interesting about the Woodcut Society is that
they were in the middle of a major battle in the 1930s with the RISE
OF MODERNISM. And so, these works were very successful and popular at
the time when many people were embracing modernist IDEALS and
PHILOSOPHIES. So, it is really intriguing, these two things drawing
on at the exact same time.
28:43
KC: I absolutely agree, and I think along those lines, and along the
lines of being contingent between the black and white and color
woodcut being undercut by Fowler, and HIS WILLINGNESS to SHOW IT ALL,
is that-- he is ALSO embracing modernism. At least with white-line
woodcut. We’ll see more about THAT UPSTAIRS. He is really
interested in ABSTRACT printmaking, or printmaking that pushes it to
the edge of abstraction, or printmaking in that moment. And is
circulating that in his exhibitions. As well as, you know, the work
of Claire Leighton, which is really pushing things politically or
Helen Heller, really pushing things in a Marxist direction. Or, more
conditional statements like Walter Joseph Phillips. So, Fowler is
very OPEN to a really BROAD SPECTRUM of artists and WHAT THEY ARE
CREATING. Which is why, I think, you get such representative example
of what is happening in the medium in the thirties. Which is his
stated goal.------ END
[Image
for this post courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
(Thursday,
April 27th, 6:00 PM, we will meet in the Spencer
Art Reference Library.
Marilyn
Carbonell,
Head,
Library Services, and
Katelyn
Crawford, Assistant Curator of American Art,
will share the many library resources and show us how they relate to
the new exhibit of The
1930s in Prints: A Gift to Kansas City from the Woodcut Society.
Then,
Katelyn will lead us on an in depth tour to view the prints in
Gallery 214.)
email 4/22/2017
building community spending time writing pen on paper woodcut manual Phillips and Lankes fostering interest seeking out new expressions in woodcut resources she found at Art Ref Library not much out there on Society scratch the surface
Additional photos courtesy of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley
Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri, accessed October 2012, Karl
Marxhausen]
Crawford made the case for further investigation. So little is known about Fowler and his contacts through the Woodcut Society.
She
recognized Cori Sherman North, John Mallery, and Karl Marxhausen as
experts. She invited all in attendance to make use of the wealth of
reading materials within the collection of the Spencer Art Reference
Library.
Each
person makes their own discoveries. Together, each dive into this
subject, will produce more and more knowledge and ADD to the GROWING
history.Karl Marxhausen
Food brings us together. Eighteen of us start our letterpress excursion with brunch upstairs above the Blue Bird Bistro on Summit (left) At one table a member ponders which future prints he will purchase for the dining room at JUCO. Another member talks about the Photoshop class she is taking. Her art making has been in studio spaces away from her home. Now she wants to combine her art training in one location at home on her computer with her photographs.
One member tells about her art students squeezing clay with their hands. In the next room new members chat with others who love ink on paper. The program director lays out the itinerary. We exit to our cars and begin across the river. Our first stop is the Print Factory, 738 Armstrong Avenue, in Kansas City, KANSAS (below, left) Craft & Concept.(double click on images to enlarge) Jan and Karl Marxhausen (above right)
The Nelson Atkins Museum has paid them come in to do thematic workshops. Last year participants created prints for the Day of the Dead celebration at the Nelson, through the live demos by the Print Factory. 
