Wood Engraving

The woodcut may look similar to the products of other graphic processes at first glance, but it has a very distinctive quality - it cannot belie the hardness of the material from which it is made. Its contour is angular, its surfaces unyielding, and there is something severe about its structure and form. Yet it is the reputed inflexibility of the material which has stimulated the artist from Durer's time to our own to overcome its limitations, and even, like the Japanese, to elicit a delicacy from it. This fascinating study of the most ancient of printing processes looks at the woodcut through the ages, and the different roles it has played. A series of attractive photographs illustrates the best examples of the woodcut in the history of art, and the major artists are discussed.