An illustrated celebration of woodcuts from the Hun Dynasty to the present day.

This is a book about why the woodcut matters. Coming face to face with a woodcut happens to most of us daily – yet who is aware of how culturally important this humble art form has been – and continues to be?

A piece of wood can be transformed into meaning simply by cutting its surface, inking the block and transferring the image onto paper. Some of the most memorable printed images have come into being this way: Dürer’s The Apocalypse, Hokusai’s The Great Wave, Munch’s The Kiss.

Across fourteen chapters, this book explores how artists have used the woodcut to shape their thinking, visualize their ideas and capture moments in history. In doing so, it tells the story of the art form itself, in all its historical and intellectual significance.

 

Paul Coldwell is an artist, curator, researcher and writer who has worked with and studied woodcuts for more than fifty years. His work has been exhibited widely, including at the British Museum, the Tate and V&A galleries in London, the Musée d'art et d’histoire in Geneva and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 2001 he has been a Professor in Fine Art Printmaking at the University of the Arts London. He has been a regular contributor to publications including Art in Print, Printmaking Today and Print Quarterly, and he is the author of several books, including Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective.