memos

Who did Alfred Fowler find?
There are clues in the memos that follow.

 

In the monthly memo with the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art

and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, May 12-31 of 1935

there is the following news flash.

"THE WOODCUT SOCIETY: Due to the cooperation of its director, Mr. Alfred Fowler, the Third Annual Exhibition of the Woodcut Society is inaugurating its tour of the United States in our Print Galleries. This year's group is especially fine and has representations from America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. There are outstanding works Lionel Lindsay, 

Thomas W. Nason, C.F. Tunnicliffe, Frau Nortertine von Bressleru-Roth, and Y. Urushibara. It will remain on exhibition until Mar 15th."

                           ----------------------------------------------------------

Many of these artists are known within the Woodcut Society with the exception of two. (Neither one of these are in the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art print collection.) C.F. Tunnelicliffe and Yoshijiro Urushibara. Double click on images to enlarge.

 

 C.F. Tunnelicliffe (1901-1979)

See Tunnelicliffe examples:

 'The Shorthorn Bull', Wood Engraving, 1935

 

'Stallion and Groom', Wood Engraving, c. 1935

 

 

See bio on C.F. Tunnelicliffe of Cheshire,
England  HERE and HERE

 

   "Success drove Tunnicliffe ever more towards wood engraving as a graphic medium. He had adapted to it very quickly and the speed and proficiency with which he engraved his blocks were quite remarkable. He told the publishers of A Book of Birds (1937) that he expected to complete between seventy and eighty engravings within three months."

(Tunnelicliffe images courtesy of Fine Print Shop-United Kingdom, http://www.fineprintshop.co.uk/browse.asp?types=Tunnicliffe%2C+C%2E+F%2E+%281901%2D79%29+Memorial+Collection+Part+One&reset=1, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

Yoshijiro Urushibara (Japanese 1888-1953), also known as Mokuchu

 

 See Urushibara examples:

"Moonlight, Bournemouth",

 (courtesy of Haji-b, http://haji-b.blogspot.com.au/, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

"Queen of the Night",

(courtesy of Haji-b, http://haji-b.blogspot.com.au/, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

"Cyclamen", Paper Size: 348 x 235 mm, Image Size: 302 x 202 mm

(courtesy of Fine Print Shop, http://www.fineprintshop.co.uk/urushibara%2C-yoshijiro-%281888-1953%29%2C-%27cyclamen%27%2C-colour-woodcut%2C-1920s.~849, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

"Ten Woodcuts"

 

See bio on Yoshijiro Urushibara HERE and HERE and HERE

 More on Urushibara HERE

 

Urushibara was an important figure in woodblock printing. He probably taught printmaking to such artists as Allen Seaby, John Platt and Walter J. Phillips. He did his own carving and printing and often carved and printed the works of others artists as well. (Courtesy of Woodblock Prints,http://www.woodblock-prints.com/fin_pri.htm; W.J. Phillips, Woodcut Society courtesy of Keith Sheridan, http://www.keithsheridan.com/Phillips.html, accessed Sept 17. 2012)

 

embellished presentation under Fowler

The Woodcut Society (1932-1954), based in Kansas City and founded by Alfred Fowler, a grain broker and bibliophile, published two prints each year. Issued in editions of 200, they were distributed to subscribers, who paid a ten-dollar annual membership fee. The organization focused on woodcuts and wood engravings exclusively. The artists commissioned for the Woodcut Society offerings included many of the best-known and accomplished print makers from America and abroad.

The prints were presented in handsome folders containing a short essay written by a noted print authority or, in some instances, the artist. The presentation folders, wonderful specimens of typography and printing in their own right, were embellished with ornaments appearing on the title and colophon, some of which were printed from blocks carved by the artist whose print the folder contained.

 The type of collector that joined organizations like the Woodcut Society would have appreciated the preciosity with which these productions were imbued. Such collectors often had a deep interest in printmaking and its history and possessed a developed set of connoisseurship skills. They likely preferred to enjoy prints within the meditative environment of their library or study, where they could keep them in museum cases or a print cabinet, rather than displayed above the couch in their living room.

(courtesy of Associated American Artists: Art By Subscription by Bill North and Charlotte Gordon, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/9aa/9aa362.htm, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

(top image, Swans by Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963), wood engraving, 5.6 cm (diameter) The second state was used as a Christmas greeting in 1932. Phillips reworked the original block into this medallion format to print on the Vista Lake presentation folio for the Kansas City 'Woodcut Society.' It appears on the folio, printed in red ink, beneath the title. Courtesy of Sharecom Industries Ltd, http://www.sharecom.ca/phillips/188a.html, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)