"St. Jerome in His Study" by German artist Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)Praise for this kind of influence can be seen in this Nov. 1910, Vol. 3, No.4,"Bookplate Booklet excerpt," entitled: The Newman Club Plate
"In this day of the popularizing of art, book-plates multiply so fast that the thoughtful collector must sift the designs that come to his net and save only a small proportion. The art schools especially are tending to increase the book-plate output, having discovered the value of this concrete form of design as an art problem. Of necessity the majority of these student plates are as so much trash from the art standpoint. But occasionally a design of true merit is brought forth which is hardly distinguishable from the work of the established designers. Such is the Newman Club book-plate, by Miss Adele Barnes, a student of the California School of Arts and Crafts.
This is a fine contrast to much student work in that it indicates much thought before the drawing and much care in the execution. Miss Barnes has distinctly followed the Durer style, and throughout has produced a plate well fitted to its use by a club of Catholic students."(Right design by Miss Adele Barnes)Note on the Wood-engravings of George Wolfe Plank
"Since the wonderful art of wood-engraving belongs to the Bibliophile rather than to The Print Collector, all readers of this magazine will welcome an introduction to the book-plates of Mr. George Wolfe Plank of Philadelphia. The talent of which Mr. Plank is possessed is an unusually distinguished one. It combines, and very ideally, an appreciation of the traditions, the limitations of his art, with a modernism that is beautifully informed and discriminating. In the use of the graver, Mr. Plank shows distinction in the management of his lines and masses. He draws with certainty and his masses are arranged
with the unerring taste of an eighteenth-century Japanese print-designer. Ugliness absents itself from all his designs and, while vigorous, they never affect a medieval crudity which, to many, seems always to characterize this particular art." (Left design by George Wolfe plank)"Too often the pre-Bewick cuts that have come down to us from the centuries are monotonous in their forceless grace or chapbook crudity. Bewick with his white-line, recognizing and accepting the limitations of wood-engraving, founded the great school. (His book-plates however were not his best work) But the very expert draughtsmen on wood finally ceased to think or to feel: and at last they were all replaced by the newer illustrative art, that of photography, and of which we are now also very weary indeed!""The American School of Wood-engraving (it is, by the way, admittedly the greatest school of all) numbers many artists who draw perfectly and who copy with a marvelous, photographic exactitude but who originate nothing whatever. They and their public are content with fac-similes. Not many artists in any line have time to adorn mere everyday life for us, the arts as yet not being demanded by the people except for gallery and general display purposes.""The artist seldom concerns himself with pure beauty, with the decoration of everydaynesses generally being intent upon interpreting some of the great, world-old secrets in a big way and so obviously that the hurrying public requires no explanation. The lovers of books and all the lovely arts contributing to their perfection rejoice when an artist is found who will take a little time from the necessary pot-boiling to express a poetic, a beautiful idea through the medium of the little wood-block, neglected and misunderstood." (Right design by George Wolfe Plank)"Mr. Plank in his wood-engravings is constantly romancing us in a new, an individual way and about a number of things--past, present and to come. His eloquence of line and mass immediately convinces of the charm of life, even in a period as ugly as our 1840s, our 1860's. Is not this a test of the superlative fineness of artistic perception? Surely, our antebellum world was very unbeautiful, but, interpreted by the blocks of Mr. Plank, it is suddenly a delightsome place, decorated with persons who, in spite of chimney-pot hats and side-whiskers and hoopskirts and
round shoulders, are very engaging indeed. His impregnable castles in the spring-day clouds are just to our minds, as are his cottage-gardens and ideal landscapes. His trees, always with a light that is circumambiet, show uncommon facility in the handling of masses. The cuts accompanying the reprint of "Carrie Munro," by the properly esteemed "Sweet Singer of Michigan," are a distinct contribution to the treasury of latter-day humor-in-art. He realizes, too, the importance of good printing and papers, lusterless and carefully chosen. Mr. Plank is at the beginning of a career which promises much toward the re-establishment of wood-engraving as one of the popular decorative arts. (The arts must be made "popular" and life must be made beautiful in every way!) His accomplishment already proves a highly individualized mind,---rhythmical, joyous."(courtesy Olive Percival May 1909, Volume 3, Number 2, The Bookplate Booklet, Missouri Valley Special Collection, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, accessed March 21, 2010)Karl Marxhausen comments: Arts and Craft schools promoted book design. It would be Noel Rooke at the Slade School in London that brought about a shift in this kind of thinking. "As a teacher he was largely responsible for raising the status of wood engraving as an independent graphic medium.."
No comments:
Post a Comment