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Medium: Woodcut
Rare 1923 Cubist Reuven Rubin Woodcut Woodblock Kabbalah Print Israeli Judaica
By Reuven Rubin
Located in Surfside, FL
This is from the original first edition 1923 printing. there was a much later edition done after these originals.
These are individually hand signed in pencil by artist as issued.
This listing is for the one print. the other documentation is included here for provenance and is not included in this listing.
The various images inspired by the Jewish Mysticism and rabbis and mystics of jerusalem and Kabbalah is holy, dramatic and optimistic Rubin succeeded to evoke the spirit of life in Israel in those early days.
They are done in a modern art style influenced by German Expressionism, particularly, Ernst Barlach, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Franz Marc, as introduced to Israel by Jakob Steinhardt, Hermann Struck and Joseph Budko.
Reuven Rubin 1893 -1974 was a Romanian-born Israeli painter and Israel's first ambassador to Romania.
Rubin Zelicovich (later Reuven Rubin) was born in Galati to a poor Romanian Jewish Hasidic family. He was the eighth of 13 children. In 1912, he left for Ottoman-ruled Palestine to study art at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Finding himself at odds with the artistic views of the Academy's teachers, he left for Paris, France, in 1913 to pursue his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He was of the well known Jewish artists in Paris along with Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine,
At the outbreak of World War I, he was returned to Romania, where he spent the war years.
In 1921, he traveled to the United States with his friend and fellow artist, Arthur Kolnik. In New York City, the two met artist Alfred Stieglitz, who was instrumental in organizing their first American show at the Anderson Gallery. Following the exhibition, in 1922, they both returned to Europe. In 1923, Rubin emigrated to Mandate Palestine.
Rubin met his wife, Esther, in 1928, aboard a passenger ship to Palestine on his return from a show in New York. She was a Bronx girl who had won a trip to Palestine in a Young Judaea competition. He died in 1974.
Part of the early generation of artists in Israel, Joseph Zaritsky, Arieh Lubin, Reuven Rubin, Sionah Tagger, Pinchas Litvinovsky, Mordecai Ardon, Yitzhak Katz, and Baruch Agadati; These painters depicted the country’s landscapes in the 1920s rebelled against the Bezalel school of Boris Schatz. They sought current styles in Europe that would help portray their own country’s landscape, in keeping with the spirit of the time. Rubin’s Cezannesque landscapes from the 1920s were defined by both a modern and a naive style, portraying the landscape and inhabitants of Israel in a sensitive fashion. His landscape paintings in particular paid special detail to a spiritual, translucent light. His early work bore the influences of Futurism, Vorticism, Cubism and Surrealism.
In Palestine, he became one of the founders of the new Eretz-Yisrael style. Recurring themes in his work were the bible, the prophet, the biblical landscape, folklore and folk art, people, including Yemenite, Hasidic Jews and Arabs. Many of his paintings are sun-bathed depictions of Jerusalem and the Galilee. Rubin might have been influenced by the work of Henri Rousseau whose naice style combined with Eastern nuances, as well as with the neo-Byzantine art to which Rubin had been exposed in his native Romania. In accordance with his integrative style, he signed his works with his first name in Hebrew and his surname in Roman letters.
In 1924, he was the first artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Tower of David, in Jerusalem (later exhibited in Tel Aviv at Gymnasia Herzliya). That year he was elected chairman of the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Palestine. From the 1930s onwards, Rubin designed backdrops for Habima Theater, the Ohel Theater and other theaters.
His biography, published in 1969, is titled My Life - My Art. He died in Tel Aviv in October 1974, after having bequeathed his home on 14 Bialik Street and a core collection of his paintings to the city of Tel Aviv. The Rubin Museum opened in 1983. The director and curator of the museum is his daughter-in-law, Carmela Rubin. Rubin's paintings are now increasingly sought after. At a Sotheby's auction in New York in 2007, his work accounted for six of the ten top lots. Along with Yaacov Agam and Menashe Kadishman he is among Israel's best known artists internationally. Education
1912 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
1913-14 École des Beaux Arts, Paris and Académie Colarossi, Paris
Select Group Exhibitions
Eged - Palestine Painters Group Eged - Palestine Painters Group, Allenby Street, Tel Aviv 1929
Artists: Chana Orloff, Abraham Melnikoff, Rubin, Reuven Nahum Gutman, Sionah Tagger,Arieh Allweil,
Jewish Artists Association, Levant Fair, Tel Aviv, 1929
Artists: Ludwig Blum,Eliyahu Sigad, Shmuel Ovadyahu, Itzhak Frenel Frenkel,Ozer Shabat, Menahem Shemi...
Category
1920s Abstract Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Erotic Scene - Woodcut by Mino Maccari - 1945
By Mino Maccari
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic Scene is an original xilography artwork realized by Mino Maccari in 1945. Hand-signed in the pseudonym of "Jean Baschie" which is the artist's signature in 1944-45 ca. erotic ...
Category
1940s Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Surrealist Large Painting Royal College of Art LGBTQ+ Women artist Red Green
By Isabel Rock
Located in Norfolk, GB
Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative takes the audience on a journey into the imagination.
In October 2023 Isabel won the Evelyn Williams Drawing Award at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize. Known as the UK’s most prestigious annual open exhibition for drawing; part of the prize is a solo show at Hastings Contemporary, scheduled for 2024.
Whilst Isabel always has a tale to tell for each of her images, you may or may not choose to go on the journey with her or you may indeed have a different story, one of your own that jumps off the page at you, that that you decide to follow.
Artwork Details:
Isabel Rock , 'Maud' 200 x 107cm, collaged woodblock print and acrylic ink on 410gsm Somerset Satin paper.
*Please note we are happy to ship this work rolled in an art tube. Whilst the work is on heavy duty art paper and mixed media, the artist is happy that the painting will be fine rolled in a tube. This is a more cost effective and environmentally sound method of shipping. Shipping via this method is free
In Rock's own words,
Maud
'Maud was a legend in the city. A legend that walked the streets and lived and breathed in the minds of the townsfolk so strongly that no one was sure any more if she was real or not.
The tap...
Category
2010s Surrealist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paint, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Pen, Woodcut
Oiso, Tora ga ame - Woodcut by Utagawa Hiroshige - 1832
Located in Roma, IT
Oiso, Tora ga ame is a woodcut print realized by Utagawa Hiroshige in 1832.
It is part of the suite The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido - Oiso.
Very good condition.
Category
1830s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
tile pool 3
Located in Columbia, MO
Kristen Martincic earned her BFA from Bowling Green State University and her MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The artist, who currently lives and works in Columbia, Misso...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Mulberry Paper, Woodcut
Starburst
By Ruth Leaf
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Starburst" 2007,is an original colors woodcut on thin rice paper paper by noted American artist Ruth Leaf, 1923-2015. It is hand signed, titled, dated and inscri...
Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
La Lettre du Fils (The Son's Letter)
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "La Lettre du Fils" (The Son's Letter) 1938 is an original color woodcut by French artist Paul Jacoulet, 1896-1960. It is hand signed in pencil by the artist, wit...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Pochard - Woodcut Print by Alexander Francis Lydon - 1870
Located in Roma, IT
Pochard is a modern artwork realized in 1870 by the British artist Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917).
Woodcut print on ivory-colored paper.
...
Category
1870s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Sumo Fighter - Woodblock Print by Utagawa Kunisada - Mid-19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Sumo Fighter is an original Woodcut print realized in mid 19 century by Utagawa Kunisada.
Good condition and Beautiful colored woodblock print, included a cardboard passpartout (45...
Category
Mid-19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
3 Panel Hand Colored Japanese Woodcut Print Lithograph
By Keisai Eisen
Located in Soquel, CA
3 Panel Hand Colored Japanese Woodcut Print Lithograph
Three panel hand colored woodcut lithograph from Nanso Satomi hakkenden, Tale of the Eight Dogs...
Category
Early 19th Century Edo Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Ink, Woodcut
$920 Sale Price
20% Off
The Bead Seller, Modern Woodcut Print by Stephen White
Located in Long Island City, NY
Stephen White - The Bead Seller, Year: 1978, Medium: Woodblock on Japon, signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil, Edition: 6/150, Size: 26.75 x 24.5 in. (67.95 x 62.23 cm)
Category
1970s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Children Asleep Under A Tree - Original Illustration for a book by C. Farrère
Located in Roma, IT
Children Asleep Under A Tree is a graceful hand-colored xylograph print, born presumably as an illustration of a book for children, unidentified, written by the French author Claude ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Hiroshige (1797-1858) - View of Kasumigaseki (Kasumigaseki no zu) 東都名所
Located in BRUCE, ACT
Artist: 広重 Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Series: Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Tôto meisho) (東都名所)
Title: View of Kasumigaseki (Kasumigaseki no zu) 霞がせきの図
Size: O-ban 大判 24.2 x 36...
Category
1840s Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Damned and Angels - Purgatory Tav. 18 - Woodcut attr. to Salvador Dali- 1963
Located in Roma, IT
Damned and Angels from the Series "The Divine Comedy" - Purgatory tav. 18 is a woodcut print realized in 1963 for a series illustrating the Medieval poem of the "Divine Comedy" by ...
Category
1960s Surrealist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Ex-Libris - Amici del Libro - woodcut - Mid 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Ex-Libris - Amici del Libro is an Artwork realized in Mid 20th Century.
Woodcut on paper. Hand signed in pencil.
Good conditions.
The artwork represents a minimalistic, clean desi...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Ichimura Uzaemon XIII - actor as Okaji of Gion, 1862 "The Six Poetry Immortals"
Located in Soquel, CA
Ichimura Uzaemon XIII - actor as Okaji of Gion, 1862 "The Six Poetry Immortals"
A Japanese Ukiyo-e woodcut print created circa 1862 by artist Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 1786-1864). ...
Category
1850s Realist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Printer's Ink, Rice Paper, Woodcut
Nakamura Daikichi - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Toyokuni - 1820s
Located in Roma, IT
Nakamura Daikichi and Seki Sanjuro is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Toyokuni I in 1820-30.
Woodcut Print Oban Dyptich Format
Nakamura Da...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Kuwana Station - Woodcut after Utagawa Hiroshige -1920s
Located in Roma, IT
Kuwana Station is an original modern artwork realized after Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 12 October 1858) in 1920s.
Original woodcut print oban yokoe. After the famous Tokaido series, ...
Category
1920s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
$269 Sale Price
25% Off
Suma - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kunisada II - 1864
Located in Roma, IT
Suma is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada II and Hiroshige II in 1864.
Woodcut Print Oban Format.
From the series "Omokage Genji go...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Stanton Macdonald-Wright "Departing Spring" Woodblock Print c.1966
Located in San Francisco, CA
Stanton Macdonald-Wright
Woodblock on Laid Paper 1966-67
Departing Spring Hesitates
Appears to be an artist proof. The pencil text and signature a...
Category
Mid-20th Century Abstract Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Woman - Woodcut by Utagawa Kunisada - 1830 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Japanese Woman is a beautiful print realized around 1830 by Utagawa Kunisada.
Original colored woodblock print.
This wonderful modern artwork represents a portrait of a Japan woman...
Category
1830s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
19th Century Japanese Woodblock - Discarded Lovers
Located in Corsham, GB
A charismatic Japanese woodblock print depicting a woman denying the attention of two disgruntled men. Signed and inscribed with characters. Presented in a contemporary wooden frame....
Category
19th Century Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Once upon a time in London, Afternoon, Woodcut, Vincent Van Gogh, Park, Pagoda
Located in Deddington, GB
A limited edition woodcut on paper print by Mychael Barratt of Vincent Van Gogh with a lady on a walk in london, passing a grand tree and Great Pagoda. The print is compromised of blue, green, purple, pink and yellow tones
Additional information:
Mychael Barratt
Once upon a time in London, Afternoon [2023]
Woodcut on paper
Signed and titled in pencil
Numbered from the edition of 100
Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look
Please note sheet sizes may differ.
Image size:
Height: 28cm
Width: 28cm
Complete size of sheet:
Height: 39.5cm
Width: 38.3cm
Depth: 0.1cm
ARTIST BIO:
Mychael Barratt was born in Toronto, Canada, however, considers himself to be a Londoner since arriving for what was supposed to be a two-week stay thirty years ago. He is a narrative artist whose work is steeped in imagery relating to art history, literature, theatre and everything else that overfills his bookshelves. He was an artist in residence for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre...
Category
2010s Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Woodcut
Mythology : Centaur and Unicorn - Original woodcut, Handsigned
Located in Paris, IDF
Honoré Broutelle
Centaur and Unicorn, 1929
Original woodcut
Handsigned in pencil
Numbered /160
On vellum 32.5 x 25.5 cm (c. 13 x 10 in)
Bears the bli...
Category
1920s Art Deco Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
19th Century Japanese Woodblock - Lady and Dairy Cow
Located in Corsham, GB
A delicate Japanese woodblock print depicting a lady leading her dairy cow. Signed and inscribed in characters. Presented in a contemporary black frame. On p...
Category
19th Century Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Judge Dai Hanji Kiyozumi - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kunisada - 1859
Located in Roma, IT
Judge Dai Hanji Kiyozumi is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1859.
Woodcut Print Oban Format, from a triptych, 1859.
Actor in the role of Judge Dai Hanji ...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Landscape from Fugaku Hyakkei- Woodcut Print by Katsushika Hokusai-1878
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape from "Fugaku hyakkei" is an original modern artwork realized by Katsushika Hokusai (31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849).
Original Woodcut print from the series "Fugaku Hyakkei" (100 views of Mount Fuji). From the second posthumous edition 1878.
Passepartout is included.
Publisher Eiraku Toshiro.
Sheet dimensions: 24 x 26 cm.
Good conditions. Signs of age and wear.
Hokusai created the monumental Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji both as a response to a domestic travel boom in Japan and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji.
Katsushika Hokusai (31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849) known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Hokusai is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Kabuki Scene- Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kunisada - 1850s
Located in Roma, IT
Kabuki Scene is an original artwork realized in the mid 19th century by the Japanese master Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865).
Color woodcut print. The artwork is a rare triptych (each ...
Category
Mid-19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
One Hundred Fifty Feet Down
Located in Dallas, TX
Eleanor Jones Harvey, Chief Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, wrote about Bob Stuth-Wade:
“Over the course of his career, Bob Stuth-Wade has examined his responses t...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Portrait of Cardinal - Woodcut after Albrecht Durer - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburgr is a Woodcut print on cream-colored paper. realized after Albrecht Durer, a reproduction of the early 20th...
Category
Early 20th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Kabuki Actor Diptych, Late 19th Century Figural Japanese Woodblock Prints (Pair)
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful late 19th century Japanese woodblock print diptych of two kabuki actors by Kunichika Toyohara (Japanese, 1835-1900). This pair of prints is united by a continuous landscape...
Category
1870s Edo Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Ink, Woodcut
Kabuki - Scene in the Snow - Woodcut by Utagawa Kunisada - 1864
Located in Roma, IT
Kabuki - Scene in the snow is an original artwork realized in 1864 by Utagawa Kunisada II (1823 – 20 July 1880).
Oban from a triptych.
Scene in a snowy ...
Category
1850s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Portrait of Nakamura Fukus - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kunisada - 1850s
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of the actor Nakamura Fukusuke I is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1858.
Woodcut print Oban Format from a tryptich.
Portrait of the actor Nakam...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Kabukie - Woodcut by Utagawa Kunisada - 1850s
Located in Roma, IT
Kabukie is an original artwork realized in the 1850s by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865).
Oban from a triptych.
An actor in the role of Otokodate Abe no Homei stands ready at night in...
Category
1850s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Miró, Composition (Dupin 1290), Miró Graveur (after)
By Joan Miró
Located in Southampton, NY
Woodcut on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, miró graveur 1. 1928- 1960, 1984. Published by Daniel Lelong, éditeur...
Category
1980s Surrealist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
$716 Sale Price
20% Off
Les Hommes a/p cvII (blue/green variant), by Fernando Reyes
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Signed on the front, and signed, titled and numbered on the reverse, This is an artist proof, unique color variant, aside from the edition of 15. An abstraction of male nudes.
In J...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
In the Fifth Season
Located in New York, NY
Gregory Amenoff is a painter who lives in New York City and Ulster County, New York. He is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations including the American Academy of Arts ...
Category
Late 20th Century Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Kabukie - The Province of Rokuok - Woodcut by Utagawa Kunikazu - 1862
By Utagawa Kunikazu
Located in Roma, IT
Kabukie - The Province of Rokuoku is an original artwork realized in 1862 by Utagawa Kunikazu (1830 - 1919)
Chuban.
From the series "Dai Nippon rokuju of Rikuoku" (60 provinces of Glorious Japan), The Province of Rokuoku.
Meeting of the two rivals in the forest at night, Tanigoro with sumo apron and fan with the national colours.
Signed: Kunikazu.
Good impression, backed, glued at corners, oxidation, centrefold, a little bit rubbed.
Utagawa Kunikazu (1830 - 1919) was a printmaker from Osaka. He had a famous teacher, the ukiyo-e artist Kunisada Utagawa...
Category
1860s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Woman In Black, Modern Woodcut Print by Stephen White
Located in Long Island City, NY
Stephen White - Woman In Black, Year: 1981, Medium: Woodblock on Japon, signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil, Edition: 2/100, Size: 24.5 x 31.5 in. (62.23 x 80.01 cm)
Category
1980s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Meeting of Two Samurai - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kuniyasu - 1820
Located in Roma, IT
Meeting of two samurai is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kuniyasu in 1820.
Woodcut Print Oban Dyptich Format. Meeting of two samurai ...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
The Sailboat - Original woodcut, Handsigned
Located in Paris, IDF
Edward PELLENS
The Sailboat, 1922
Original woodcut
Handsigned in pencil
Numbered /154
On vellum 32.5 x 25.5 cm (c. 13 x 10 in)
Bears the blind stamp of t...
Category
1920s Art Deco Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
"Pura Vida" original color woodcut print signed by Carol Summers
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Pura Vida" is an original color woodcut signed by Carol Summers. A multi-colored piece shows a waterfall with red flames behind it in the middle of the piece. On the left stands a tree with yellow leaves on a hill. To the right is a rainbow. This is an excellent example of Summer's printmaking, not just because of the technique and imagery, but because it numbered 1 of the edition of 125. In addition, it contains a personal inscription to the Milwaukee gallerist David Barnett, who has championed the work of Summers and produced catalogs of his work. Indeed, this print appears as no. 189 in the David Barnett Gallery's 1988 catalogue raisonné of Summer's woodcuts.
Feel free to inquire if you would like to purchase a copy of the catalogue raisonné along with your Carol Summers print.
Art: 24.25 x 24.75 in
Frame: 36 x 35 in
signed lower right
titled and inscribed to David [Barnett] lower right
edition (1/125) lower right
Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented.
In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother.
From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum.
In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts. In 1954, Summers received a grant from the Italian government to study for a year in Italy. Woodcuts completed soon after his arrival there were almost all editions of only 8 to 25 prints, small in size, architectural in content and black and white in color. The most well-known are Siennese Landscape and Little Landscape, which depicted the area near where he resided. Summers extended this trip three more years, a decision which would have significant impact on choices of subject matter and color in the coming decade.
After returning from Europe, Summers’ images continued to feature historical landmarks and events from Italy as well as from France, Spain and Greece. However, as evidenced in Aetna’s Dream, Worldwind and Arch of Triumph, a new look prevailed. These woodcuts were larger in size and in color. Some incorporated metal leaf in the creation of a collage and Summers even experimented with silkscreening. Editions were now between 20 and 50 prints in number. Most importantly, Summers employed his rubbing technique for the first time in the creation of Fantastic Garden in late 1957.
Dark Vision of Xerxes, a benchmark for Summers, was the first woodcut where Summers experimented using mineral spirits as part of his printmaking process. A Fulbright Grant as well as Fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation followed soon thereafter, as did faculty positions at colleges and universities primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. During this period he married a dancer named Elaine Smithers with whom he had one son, Kyle. Around this same time, along with fellow artist Leonard Baskin, Summers pioneered what is now referred to as the “monumental” woodcut. This term was coined in the early 1960s to denote woodcuts that were dramatically bigger than those previously created in earlier years, ones that were limited in size mostly by the size of small hand-presses. While Baskin chose figurative subject matter, serious in nature and rendered with thick, striated lines, Summers rendered much less somber images preferring to emphasize shape and color; his subject matter approached abstraction but was always firmly rooted in the landscape.
In addition to working in this new, larger scale, Summers simultaneously refined a printmaking process which would eventually be called the “Carol Summers Method” or the “ Carol Summers Technique”. Summers produces his woodcuts by hand, usually from one or more blocks of quarter-inch pine, using oil-based printing inks and porous mulberry papers. His woodcuts reveal a sensitivity to wood especially its absorptive qualities and the subtleties of the grain. In several of his woodcuts throughout his career he has used the undulating, grainy patterns of a large wood plank to portray a flowing river or tumbling waterfall. The best examples of this are Dream, done in 1965 and the later Flash Flood Escalante, in 2003. In the majority of his woodcuts, Summers makes the blocks slightly larger than the paper so the image and color will bleed off the edge.
Before printing, he centers a dry sheet of paper over the top of the cut wood block or blocks, securing it with giant clips. Then he rolls the ink directly on the front of the sheet of paper and pressing down onto the dry wood block or reassembled group of blocks. Summers is technically very proficient; the inks are thoroughly saturated onto the surface of the paper but they do not run into each other. The precision of the color inking in Constantine’s Dream in 1969 and Rainbow Glacier in 1970 has been referred to in various studio handbooks. Summers refers to his own printing technique as “rubbing”. In traditional woodcut printing, including the Japanese method, the ink is applied directly onto the block. However, by following his own method, Summers has avoided the mirror-reversed image of a conventional print and it has given him the control over the precise amount of ink that he wants on the paper. After the ink is applied to the front of the paper, Summers sprays it with mineral spirits, which act as a thinning agent. The absorptive fibers of the paper draw the thinned ink away from the surface softening the shapes and diffusing and muting the colors. This produces a unique glow that is a hallmark of the Summers printmaking technique. Unlike the works of other color field artists or modernists of the time, this new technique made Summers’ extreme simplification and flat color areas anything but hard-edged or coldly impersonal.
By the 1960s, Summers had developed a personal way of coloring and printing and was not afraid of hard work, doing the cutting, inking and pulling himself. In 1964, at the age of 38, Summers’ work was exhibited for a second time at the Museum of Modern Art. This time his work was featured in a one-man show and then as one of MOMA’s two-year traveling exhibitions which toured throughout the United States. In subsequent years, Summers’ works would be exhibited and acquired for the permanent collections of multiple museums throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Summers’ familiarity with landscapes throughout the world is firsthand. As a navigator-bombardier in the Marines in World War II, he toured the South Pacific and Asia.
Following college, travel in Europe and subsequent teaching positions, in 1972, after 47 years on the East Coast, Carol Summers moved permanently to Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. There met his second wife, Joan Ward Toth, a textile artist who died in 1998; and it was here his second son, Ethan was born. During the years that followed this relocation, Summers’ choice of subject matter became more diverse although it retained the positive, mostly life-affirming quality that had existed from the beginning. Images now included moons, comets, both sunny and starry skies, hearts and flowers, all of which, in one way or another, remained tied to the landscape.
In the 1980s, from his home and studio in the Santa Cruz mountains, Summers continued to work as an artist supplementing his income by conducting classes and workshops at universities in California and Oregon as well as throughout the Mid and Southwest. He also traveled extensively during this period hiking and camping, often for weeks at a time, throughout the western United States and Canada. Throughout the decade it was not unusual for Summers to backpack alone or with a fellow artist into mountains or back country for six weeks or more at a time. Not surprisingly, the artwork created during this period rarely departed from images of the land, sea and sky. Summers rendered these landscapes in a more representational style than before, however he always kept them somewhat abstract by mixing geometric shapes with organic shapes, irregular in outline. Some of his most critically acknowledged work was created during this period including First Rain, 1985 and The Rolling Sea, 1989. Summers received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Bard College in 1979 and was selected by the United States Information Agency to spend a year conducting painting and printmaking workshops at universities throughout India. Since that original sabbatical, he has returned every year, spending four to eight weeks traveling throughout that country.
In the 1990s, interspersed with these journeys to India have been additional treks to the back roads and high country areas of Mexico, Central America, Nepal, China and Japan. Travel to these exotic and faraway places had a profound influence on Summers’ art. Subject matter became more worldly and nonwestern as with From Humla to Dolpo, 1991 or A Former Life of Budha, 1996, for example. Architectural images, such as The Pillars of Hercules, 1990 or The Raja’s Aviary, 1992 became more common. Still life images made a reappearance with Jungle Bouquet in 1997. This was also a period when Summers began using odd-sized paper to further the impact of an image.
The 1996 Night, a view of the earth and horizon as it might be seen by an astronaut, is over six feet long and only slightly more than a foot-and-a-half high. From 1999, Revuelta A Vida (Spanish for “Return to Life”) is pie-shaped and covers nearly 18 cubic feet. It was also at this juncture that Summers began to experiment with a somewhat different palette although he retained his love of saturated colors. The 2003 Far Side of Time is a superb example of the new direction taken by this colorist.
At the turn of the millennium in 1999, “Carol Summers Woodcuts...
Category
1980s Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Alhambra XII
Located in New York, NY
Antonio Frasconi created the color woodcut entitled “Alhambra XII” in 1963. This piece is signed titled, and dated in pencil. The edition is 12, and paper size is 18 x 24 inches. “...
Category
1960s American Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Joyce T. Nagel Woodcut "Vegetable Forms No. 1" Signed Dated Ltd Ed
Located in Detroit, MI
"Vegetable Forms No. 1" is a bright fresh woodcut print of a mirrored halved cabbage. Nature's intricate design is fully appreciated and apparent in the captured tight crinkled and folded leaves. #7/7 Signed and Dated
Joyce Tilley Nagel...
Category
1970s American Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Large Scale Abstract Figurative Landscape Woodcut, Signed Limited Edition 1/10
Located in Soquel, CA
Large scale limited edition woodcut print of an an abstracted scene with landscape elements and rough figural forms including a dog, house and tree that emerge from chaotic linear ab...
Category
Late 20th Century Post-War Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Woodcut, Ink
THE BREAK OF DAY Signed Woodcut, Black Woman Reading Letter, Lavender Dress
By Otto Neals
Located in Union City, NJ
THE BREAK OF DAY is an original limited edition woodcut print by the African-American painter and sculptor, Otto Neals. The woodblock used to print THE BREAK OF DAY was hand-carved b...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Virgil Comforts Dante - Woodcut - 1963
Located in Roma, IT
Virgil Comforts Dante - Hell, Plate-2- Divine Comedy is a woodcut print realized in 1963 for a series illustrating the Medieval poem of the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri.
Not ...
Category
1960s Surrealist Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Room with a red arch - XXI Century, Contemporary Linocut Woodcut Print, Colorful
Located in Warsaw, PL
Maria Stelmaszczyk is a Polish artist born in 1983.
PROVENANCE
Exhibited at Katarzyna Napiorkowska Gallery.
The Gallery is a primary representative for this artist.
The Gallery o...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Woodcut, Linocut
Illusion : Boy, Cat and Soap Bubbles - Original woodcut, Handsigned
Located in Paris, IDF
Gabriel BELOT
Illusion : Boy, Cat and Soap Bubbles, 1922
Original woodcut
Handsigned in pencil
Numbered /154
On vellum 32.5 x 25.5 cm (c. 13 x 10 in)
Bears the blind stamp of the ed...
Category
1920s Art Deco Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Japanese Figurative Edo Woodblock Set of Two
Located in Soquel, CA
Alluring two-piece edo woodblock print of Japanese actors by Toyohara Kunichika (Japanese, 1835-1900). Titled, dated and signed on verso. Presented...
Category
1880s Edo Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Ink, Woodcut
$700 Sale Price
20% Off
Wallowing in the Mud, woodblock print by Penelope Ellis
Located in London, GB
Penelope Ellis (1935-2016)
Wallowing in the Mud
Woodblock print
15 x 11 cm
Provenance: From the artist's estate sale.
Penelope Mary Ellis (1935–2016) was a British artist celebra...
Category
1950s Folk Art Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Dance Hall - Woodcut by Gaspard Maillol - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Dance hall is a woodcut print realized by Gaspard Maillol (1880-1946).
Hand signed by the artist on the lower margin. Edition 19/160.
Gaspard Maillol , born on July 10 , 1880 in Ba...
Category
Early 20th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Lion - Original Woodcut Print by P. C. Antinori - 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Zodiac Signs - Lion is original Black and white woodcut print, realized by Italian artist Piero C. Antinori.
Excellent condition.
Written on the lower left; Original woodcut by Pie...
Category
20th Century Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
The Bird - Woodcut print - early 20th century
Located in Roma, IT
The bird is a woodcut print realized by an unknown artist in the early 20th Century.
Very Good conditions.
the artwork is depicted through confident strokes.
Category
Early 20th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Yamabayashi Fusahachi - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kunisada - 1860s
Located in Roma, IT
Yamabayashi Fusahachi is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1861.
Woodcut print Oban from a multi-heet, 1861
Actor in the role of Yamabayashi Fusahachi sta...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Sumo Fighters - Woodblock Print by Utagawa Kunisada - Mid-19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Sumo Fighters is an original Woodcut print realized in mid 19th century by Utagawa Kunisada.
Good condition and Beautiful colored woodblock print.
This wonderful modern artwork re...
Category
Mid-19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
"Dawn Inside the Yoshiwara" Utagawa Hiroshige, Japanese Landscape, Ukiyo-e
Located in New York, NY
Utagawa Hiroshige
Dawn Inside the Yoshiwara, circa 1857
Woodblock print
11 x 7 inches
Utagawa Hiroshige is recognized as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, havin...
Category
1850s Naturalistic Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Paper, Ink, Woodcut
Night Heron - Woodcut Print by Alexander Francis Lydon - 1870
Located in Roma, IT
Night Heron is a modern artwork realized in 1870 by the British artist Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917).
Woodcut print on ivory-colored paper.
Hand-colored, published by London,...
Category
1870s Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Delicate Makeup in Fashion - Woodcut Print by Utagawa Kunisada - 1830
Located in Roma, IT
Delicate makeup in fashion is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1830s.
Woodcut Print Oban Dyptich Format. From the series "Jisei usugesho" (Delicate makeup in fashion). An actor prepares him self for a rolle as Onnagata in a Shosagoto play, with the ghost characters of the sister Matsukaze and Murasame. He sits in front of a makeup table and applies makeup to his eyebrows, behind him on a black lacquer shelf...
Category
19th Century Modern Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Woodcut
Green Column/Figure
Located in New York, NY
Associated with the Minimalist art movement of the 1960s, Mangold developed a reductive vocabulary based on geometric forms, monochromatic color, and an emphasis on the flatness of t...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Art by Medium: Woodcut
Materials
Etching, Woodcut
Woodcut art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Woodcut art available on 1stDibs. While artists have worked in this medium across a range of time periods, art made with this material during the 21st Century is especially popular. If you’re looking to add art created with this material to introduce a provocative pop of color and texture to an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange, yellow, purple, blue and other colors. There are many well-known artists whose body of work includes ceramic sculptures. Popular artists on 1stDibs associated with pieces like this include Mino Maccari, Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), Eric Gill, and Utagawa Hiroshige. Frequently made by artists working in the Modern, Contemporary, all of these pieces for sale are unique and many will draw the attention of guests in your home. Not every interior allows for large Woodcut art, so small editions measuring 0.04 inches across are also available