Planned Spontaneity
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PLANNED SPONTANEITY: The Construction of a Modular System of Relief Printmaking Matrices for the Platen Press Edwina Ellis PLANNED SPONTANEITY: The Construction of a Modular System of Relief Printmaking Matrices for the Platen Press This thesis could not have been written without the extraordinary generosity of Graham Williams Penny David and Philip Ellis i DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed (candidate) Date STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended Signed (candidate) Date STATEMENT 2 I hereby consent to my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed (candidate) Date TABLE OF CONTENTS ii Declaration ……………………………………. i Synopsis ……………………………………….. iii 1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………. 1 2 The Modular System : Impetus, Inspiration and Historical Precedence ……….. 24 3 The Printing Surfaces : Acetal Resin, Linoleum and Vinyl ……………………… 57 Relief printing ………………………………………………………. 57 Introducing the Printing Surfaces ………………………………... 60 The Adaptation of Materials for Printing Surfaces …………….. 62 Acetal resin tint blocks …………………………………………… 64 Historical Ancestry of the Tint Blocks …………………………… 69 Modular Tints ………………………………………………………. 73 Tools and Machines ………………………………………………... 75 Linoleum and Vinyl Flexible Printing Surfaces ……………… 80 The Compound Matrices and Cut or Smooth Components ….. 82 Historical precedents for the Compound Matrices ……... 85 Modularity and the Evolution of the Large Linocuts ………… 91 4 Printing: Kentōban, Chases and Furniture ……………………………………….. 92 The Platen Press Bed …...………………………………………….. 98 Chases , Quoins and Quadrants …………………………………… 99 Kentōban ……………………………………………………………… 104 The Circular Chases ………………………………………………… 108 Drawing with furniture ……………………………………………. 111 5 Development of the Modular System : Embossing, Offsetting and Maculature 116 Definitions: Offset, Set-off and Maculature 117 Stage I. Experiment Tint Blocks and Die Cutting ……..………… 121 Stage II. Development Embossing to Offsetting ………………… 124 Stage III Emergence of the Modular System…………………….. 134 6 Continuation and Growth of the Modular System.. ………………………… 144 Stage IV Continuation ……………………………………………… 145 Stage V Growth …………………………………………………….. 155 7 Afterword A Curly Journey ………………………………………………………. 170 List of Illustrations ………………………….... 177 Bibliography …………………………………. 182 Glossary ……………………………………….. 196 iii PLANNED SPONTANEITY: The Construction of a Modular System of Relief Printmaking Matrices for the Platen Press The Modular System draws on traditional wood engraving, woodcut and letterpress practices. It comprises two printing surfaces and printing furniture specifically devised to facilitate offset and transfer relief printing. Rigid acetal resin tint blocks, hand or laser engraved, generate tone or colour that may be applied to more than one image. Multiple overprinting produces variant colour mixtures. Their function is similar to late nineteenth-century tints devised for colour letterpress printing. Compound printing surfaces of linoleum or vinyl are segmented and joined to make removable and replaceable parts. They print variable configurations in a process that resembles historical solutions to simultaneous colour printing: from the Mentz Psalter (1475), to the compound plates of William Congreve (1820) and the segmented wood engravings of John Holt Ibbetson (1819). These compound surfaces also act as receptors for impressions from the tint blocks. Repositioning and offsetting them is expedited by press furniture especially devised for the project. Registration devices are based on the simple Japanese kentō system and laser-cut circular chases derived from traditional letterpress furniture. Printing the tint blocks directly onto the flexible compound surfaces produce two viable prints that are offsets of each other. They are reversed, but one offset is also tonally inversed. It is this unpredictable tonality that has driven this experimental project. Both the construction and processes developed using the Modular System directed historical research into functional colour relief printing which consequently unearthed examples that would influence the further development of the project. This has generated both devices and processes capable of wider applications. Printing surfaces employed in the Modular System may be laser engraved or cut and adapted to use in both lithography and intaglio printmaking. 1 INTRODUCTION 1 The approach to the starting point of the project was traditional wood engraving: a process that is largely perceived to be the action of incision into an end-grain wood block. With notable exceptions, it involves a degree of planning which tends to be the main influence on the graphic animation of the block. 1 Manuals still usually feature an ultimate chapter on ‘printing’, and both Walter Chamberlain’s Manual of Wood Engraving 1978 and his Manual of Woodcut Printmaking 1978 end with a valuable but identical chapter on relief printing. 2 It is evidence of an affinity, forged by the relief printing process, of printing surfaces which otherwise require different treatment: woodcut is cut on the long grain, and with hollow tools. That a putative printer of wood engravings could learn from the chapter demonstrates Chamberlain’s ability to explain technical processes – but also that the procedure is simple enough to do so in a book chapter. The basics of relief printing are as old as printing practice, and share ancestry with the genesis of printing in China. 3 Relief printing with a press in fifteenth-century Europe developed in tandem with type. 4 The relief printing process denotes the use of hand- printing, by burnishing or stamping, or a relief press. The use of such a press is often termed letterpress , which shows the close association of relief printing with movable type, and how, with the small scale of wood engraving, literally aligning with type could remain a strong influence on wood-engraved graphics. 5 As the practice of infrequent proofing before ultimate printing is connected to the nature of woods still in use for engraving, it would be only slightly generalising to state that printing remains a latter 1 Naum Gabo (1890-1977) Williams, G. (1987). Naum Gabo Monoprints : from Engraved Wood Blocks and Stencils . Ashford, Florin Press for Kettle's Yard, Cambridge & The Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. 2 Chamberlain, W. (1978). The Thames and Hudson Manual of Wood Engraving . London, Thames and Hudson, Chamberlain, W. (1978). The Thames and Hudson Manual of Woodcut Printmaking . London, Thames & Hudson. Chamberlain writes about listening to ink hiss and the silken texture of correctly rolled ink – Like myself, Colin Paynton ( verbatum, 1998 Oxford ) cites the chapter as a valuable guide. 3 The long evolution of Seals, to specifically reverse cut hand-held relief stamps began before 500 BC when their use for validation included utilisation of red ink ‘around 500 BC’. Carter, T. F. and L. C. Goodrich (1955). The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward . New York, Ronald Press Co. p. 13 4 Landau, D. and P. Parshall (1994). The Renaissance Print: 1470-1550 . New Haven; London, Yale University Press. p. 2 5 '…the stronghold of the art' is the conjunction of the press and type with engraving. Chatto, W. A. and J. Jackson (1861). A Treatise on Wood Engraving . London, Chatto and Windus. p. 650 1 INTRODUCTION 2 action in the wood -engraving process – and that the ink is usually black. 6 In order to explain the background to a project featuring relief engraving, beginning with the methodology of Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) has prove d unavoidable. Although his work has had no conscious influence on the project, the previous practice evolved from traditional British wood -engraving processes, which were pioneered by Bewick. His work and practice not only introduce the accepted perception of a wood-engraved print and the more hidden applications of the medium, but also identify quandaries which the practical project attempted to address. Bewick understood more applications of his craft than he had time to pursue, and his own words additionally describe the manner in which the previous work departed from what is seen as the traditional model. Moreover, Bewick’s predictions for the potential of the medium delineate strategy which is exploited in the project. Bewick was aware of colour, and regretted its usual absence in wood engraved prints. 7 The transfer drawing, print and watercolour study of The Great Spotted Woodpecker (1797) (Fig 1:1 p.4) show how Bewick illustrated his pioneering natural history works ‘by figures delineated with all the fidelity and animation’ he ‘was able to impart to mere woodcuts without colour.’ 8Although the black print exemplifies what is understood by the term ‘wood engraving’ ( Fig 1:1b), Bewick consciously ‘attempted colour upon the 6 Boxwood Buxus sempervirens is still primarily used for engraving, but lemon woods Calycophyllum candidissima & multiflorum are also widely used. End-grain blocks must be kept dry and at even temperatures. Minimal damping procedures for cleaning, particularly with solvents, avoid disturbing the wood texture which effects engraving after inking. Most cleaning