Art for the People
Linocut began in Germany as a medium for artists to reject academic art and focus on raw expression.
In Spain, artists used linocut as an accessible medium meant to be able to reach broad audiences and inspire social change. A carving can make many prints, and people could produce more prints and reach more people. This lended well to spreading the word for social justice causes.
Women in 1938 in Massachusetts, a group of women, known as The Folly Cove Designers, revolutionized Linocut printing. They showed that Linocut could be both an art form and a means of economic independence.
Picasso caught word of the art form and further popularized Linocut. He, (like me), struggled with aligning multi-step Linocut prints, and developed the reduction Linocut print. In this process, the linoleum is carved down further between each print, destroying the original carving to create more intricate designs and producing more limited prints.
After WW2, new art trends like abstract expressionism (think Jackson Pollock) became more popular. Linocut as an art form endured and became a medium for social justice, particularly in Africa and South America, but also in the US.
As you’re reading this, Linocut is in a modern renaissance period.
Linocut is a form of printmaking I learned from a fellow artist (Thanks, Taylor!). The process involves designing an image, and transferring the design to a block of carve-able material such as a soft linoleum block. The design is then carved as a relief into the block, inked with a roller, and printed like a stamp onto paper or fabric.
Some designs are single-block prints, where the entire image is done with one carving. Other designs can use multiple blocks, where one block is printed and then the paper is lined up to match for another print on top.
Reductive Linocut is when the same block is inked and progressively carved down in between prints. These designs are limited as you lose the previous design as you carve the next layer.
Each Linocut Print is unique, even when the same design is used.