Sunday 15 August 2010

Sea gulls and the woodblock (I)


Gulls and the woodblock (I)
In my recent posting I visited the coast and thus encountered many gull pictures. Living near the coast, and weekend-Islander, I am a longtime gull enthousiast and have a great fascination with these wild birds. I will show all wooddblock pictures I have collected over time. By artist that must have been evenly fascinated. The first is by contemporary woodblock artist Australian Tom Kristensen (b. 1962) a strong cleverly designed print and very much showing the strong and individual character of these majestic birds.

Bror Julius Nordfeldt (1906)
Besides the pictures of Gulls on woodblock-prints shown before in recent postings (Tidemand-Johannesson, Lindenmuth, Wyeth) I shall make a distinction in 4 groups. 1) The Japanese classical masters, 2) the Western Masters 1900-1940 artist (all born around 1875-1890) and 3) the "modernistic" Provincetown artists after roughly 1915, 4) Modern prints (as not shown before in recent posts) 

1) The Japanese Masters



Toshi Yoshida (1911-1995) Antarctic Gulls

Koson (1877-1945), Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918), Koson

Aoyama Masaharu (1893-1969)

2) The Western Masters

Hans Neumann (1873-1957)
I donot know why Hans Neumann changed his composition nor which of the two is the first edited.
Hans Frank (1884-1948)
Frances Gearhart (1869-1959)

Arthur Rigden Read (1879-1955) "Stormy seas" (priv.coll.)
Allen William Seaby (1867-1953)
Helène Grande-Tüpke (1876-1946)
E. Owen Jones (a completely obscured woodblock artist)
"Gulls and sailing boats"
Ludwig Hohlwein (1874-1939)
To be continued with 3) Provincetown artist seagull prints and 4) some modern prints.

6 comments:

  1. Just a small slip, Gerrie. 'Stormy Seas' isn't by Seaby; it's an Arthur Rigden Read.

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  2. I've made the correction. I am still batteling with the page make up after uploading new images. It's a struggle. Then errors slip in. Please keep correcting.

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  3. Hi Gerrie, Great post although I have to say, Robert Hainard is probably the finest of the wildlife woodblock artists in the latter part of the 20th Century. His studies of sea birds are outstanding and truly exquisite. In fact I have one on my wall, and when people see it, it's not until they come close to examine it that they realise it isn't a photograph.

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  4. Thank you Clive, I have made up for that omission instantly today. Please tell me were I can find more studies of seabirds. And show me the one on your wall please.

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  5. "Francis Gearhard" should read "Frances Gearhart."

    Another nice American-made print with gulls:

    http://www.owingsgallery.com/artists/bjo-nordfeldt/#/images/1/

    This print goes by a variety of names; it actually depicts a sailboat race, but is often described as "Fishing Fleet" or some such. "The Storm" is used in an early article about his prints, so is probably the best to use.

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  6. Thank you very much, stranger passing by. I will make corrections and this new to me print is great. 1906 that's amazing too. I will show it in a separate posting and try pasting in it here. Where it dsefenitely belongs.

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