Colour
Linocut
Although
various artists have used the medium occasionally,
it is most associated with Picasso in France,
and in England with the Grosvernor School
artists.
The
Grosvernor School was set up by Ian MacNab
and Claude Flight in 1925. Flight
introduced linocut into the curriculum
and by 1929 staff and pupils had inaugurated
the first of their annual colourprint exhibitions
at the Redfern Gallery, which continued
throughout the 1930’s.
Flight
considered linocut a completely new medium
and an opportunity for artists to exploit
vivid colours as an integral part of the
design to express the dynamism of modern
life. His own linocuts included ‘Speed’,
a fast-moving London red bus, while Cyril
Power made a number of memorable images
based on the London Underground, escalators,
lifts etc.
Other
artists in the school used the same technique
for decorative effect in less dynamic themes
such as landscape.
In
his textbook on linocut Flight wrote “A
key block is not essential; two, three
or four
blocks of almost equal detail can be used
and strength obtained where necessary by
superimposing one colour over another to
gain the required depth of tone”. The
order of printing the blocks determined the eventual colours, for “red
over blue over yellow gives a different result to blue over red over yellow or
yellow over blue over red, and so forth”.
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Sybil
Andrews (1898–1992): "The
Mowers".
Four-Colour ‘Grosvenor School’ linocut, 1937.
(305 x 353 mm) |
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The
Grosvernor School gave impetus to an interest
in linocut in Australia when Australian
students Dorrit Black, Ethel Spowers and
Eveline Syme returned home.
Lill
Tsudi was a Swiss exponent and Sybil Andrews
took the technique to Canada when she emigrated
to that country.
Most
colour linocuts are printed from a succession
of different blocks for each colour, superimposed
in sequential printings. If the whole series
of blocks is retained, further prints can
be made at any time if desired.
Occasionally
artists, such as Sybella Styles, use a ‘reduction’ system
which employs only a single block, which
is destroyed as the printing progresses,
so that the entire edition must be printed
from the outset. The design is completely
worked out in advance, the largest colour
area is printed first. Then areas of the
block are removed leaving those that are
to print in the next colour, and so
on, until the full image is achieved.
It is impossible to return to an earlier ‘state’ of
the block as it is successively cut away.
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