Baren Digest              Sunday, 12 November 2000      Volume 13 : Number 1212


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From: Wanda <robertson@canby.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 10:12:51 -0700
Subject: [Baren 12067] Re:   Baren Digest V13 #1210 

Lawrence wrote:
<snip>
> The beauty of a press is that you do
> not need thick ink (which if you follow Ivans model, ie the history of
> print being the history of removing muddy water from a deep ditch to a
> situation where embossing and ink are to a minimum) then the press is
> ideal. Still a spoon print on a small scale can be nice, say for wood
> engraving.

Could you tell us a little more about "Ivans model"? The image of a deep
ditch of muddy water is pretty intriguing comparison.

There are probably as many ways to put ink on paper as there are people
who do it. My favorite way is dry paper (Arches 88) a bed-driven press
(as opposed to a top roller press) a registration board made of matt
board with an L built up of mat board to hold the block in place. A thin
layer of ink with enough pressure to emboss a little bit will pick up
very fine nuances of the carved lino block. For hanga printing, damp
paper and a good baren make short work of the printing process. And the
registration marks carved into the block itself. I enjoy both processes
very much.

My $.02...

Wanda



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From: "jerelee" <jerelee@main.nc.us>
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 19:05:27 -0600
Subject: [Baren 12068] Re: paper charset="iso-8859-1" 

Dear Paper Junkies
 I just received  a 160 page catalog from New York Central Art Supply. It
lists thousands of different papers from around the world  - , Japan,France,
Italy, India, Bhutan, Africa, Germany, Thailand, Nepal, and Madagascar in
addition to marbled and printed papers. Call them toll free at
1-800-950-6111 or email them at sales@nycentralart.com. 

jerelee-----

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From: d bartl <dob38@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 17:45:52 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 12070] Time to introduce myself 

Hi,
I have been lurking in the background for a few weeks,
reading messages and learning a lot about woodblock
printing. I have an undergrad degree in fine art
(1985) and have recently got back into woodblock
printing, via white line printmaking technique. I was
looking for information on the technique and in the
course of a web search found your site. I also have
worked as a professional photographer, paint in
watercolors and oils, use colored pencil, in short I
use whatever medium the subject seems to demand.  
Hope this is enough info, am looking forward to
participating in a swap or exchange.

Deborah Ann Bartl
pennsylvania, USA






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From: "Murilo Pereira" <muriloap@newsite.com.br>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 00:09:11 -0200
Subject: [Baren 12071] Re: what's it all about 

Last week I was with the History teacher in his class  - 14 to more than
50 - at night - and  have had the insight  that I don't know nothing at all
about the african art, it seems like it doesn't exist anymore. So I made the
bridge to Picasso's cubism that those classes have talked about in Art
classes in which I had also being present as auxilary teacher, So I thinked
" Cubism, and " Les demoiselles d"Avingnon" , they were  his answer to the
African sculptures he had seen in Paris, and have inspired other artists -
Modigliani, ... . And for now we do'nt konw nothing about their prints,
their paintings...  I saw Afrincans in the soccer - Camar=F5es - but in Art
it's just like they don't exist. In fact, all we  know from them  are in the
american movies or it's about Nelson Mandella . (Why  was he a prisioner for
some time? ).  Have to say that my knowledge about the African continent
doesn't exist at all. I appreciate if any, -  well, Barbara, here I would
use any or some or none?  -  /Baren/ member  owns their links .  I must
confess my baren is a wooden spoon and I have never seen a genuine Japanese
baren. I'm still in the carven. Your enthusiasm makes me feel more faithfull
for the future. Sometimes I think Art is dead. Or is it  a Pomo reaction?

Best wishes.

Murilo Pereira


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From: Lawrence <vurt1@optushome.com.au>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 19:16:22 +1100
Subject: [Baren 12072] Re:   Baren Digest V13 #1210 <200011110748.QAA20392@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> 

Hi Wanda

William Ivans was an art theorist who put forward that the history of 
printing since Gutenberg has been "the history of removing a muddy stream 
from the bottom of a ravine", he is referring to thick ink and the 
embossing left by the press. (have a look for a book called "Prints and 
visual communications" MIT press London 1969 reprinted in 89).  Ivans model 
is such that lithography is the be all and end all of print because it 
takes the printing process to its logical climax of least ink and 
embossing, his aesthetic taste is such that he sees that as a good thing. 
The arts crafts movement and private press movement in GB also ascribed 
largely to this model.

I personally think that Ivans didn't forsee that there would come a time 
when people would appreciate the beauty of a page or image based on its 
tactile feel and its uniqueness. I once held a page of the Nuremberg 
chronicle (an early block printed book) and it was the most awesome thing 
to touch, really very tactually alive, felt as if it came from a totally 
different planet, whereas the private press books from the Victorian era by 
contrast seem to try really hard to disguise the fact that they were hand 
crafted (still gorgeous things though). I once handled a silkscreen that a 
chinese artist printer had done, it was easily a 1/2 cm of ink, more like 
an oil painting than a screenprint. It was really bizarre but stunning to 
look at and to touch. Artists when they use a medium don't have to be 
limited just by the visuals they create. What can be most marvellous in a 
print is to close your eyes and run your hands over the page, feel the 
paper, the type and the print, embossed it comes alive in the finger tips. 
Thats why I think that old technology is so worthwhile, because an offset 
litho or computer output is tactually very sterile. Not dismissing that 
these mediums can be invested with some soul, through the image laid upon 
them, but that the final creation is going to be tactually lifeless give or 
take a gimmick or two, such as raised inks or recycled carton board.

I like what Ivans had to say however and can see the truth of it bourne out 
day to day in the commercial world. Offset work from a commercial printers 
is created with the same method (theoretically anyway) that an artist 
lithographer uses. Tactually this renders it a little lifeless (I'm not 
referring to content as this has its own life). Engravers, screenprinters, 
etchers and linoblock printers inevitably have a result which will be more 
tactile to the touch. In an age where there is less and less touch this can 
only be beneficial.

Read a quote of Giacometti or Henry Moore once where they said a similar 
thing, I think that they said they thought that their work was only alive 
so long as people (physically) touched it, I went to the art gallery a week 
or so later and got told off for gromfondling a Henry Moore. Go figure...

Another little rant for 2c...





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End of Baren Digest V13 #1212
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