A Monochrome Semi-abstract Relief Print
A good case can be made that all art is abstract, so to ease our way to more abstract art, we begin with semi-abstraction.
Please look at the 1890’s woodblock print L’Argent by the French artist Felix Vallotton. Besides other features, monochrome by itself brings the print a step away from realism even though the figures are crafted realistically.
A relief print is made by excavating material from a block typically linoleum or in this case wood. The artist starts by cutting into the wooden block, with a knife and gouges to remove wood. That leaves excavated low areas and untouched high flat areas. Black ink is prepared by being spread out on a flat working surface and picked up on a roller. The inked roller is then rolled over the wood block, depositing ink on the high areas and missing the low areas.
A relief print is made by excavating material from a block typically linoleum or in this case wood. The artist starts by cutting into the wooden block, with a knife and gouges to remove wood. That leaves excavated low areas and untouched high flat areas. Black ink is prepared by being spread out on a flat working surface and picked up on a roller. The inked roller is then rolled over the wood block, depositing ink on the high areas and missing the low areas.
A piece of paper is carefully laid on top of the inked woodblock and the paper is rubbed by hand with a barren from the back side to transfer the ink to the paper. Alternatively, the block with paper on top can be run through a press to force the ink to transfer to the paper.
If you want a two color print, you would cut another block to carry the second color and apply it to the paper which already has the dried first color.
Let’s examine how Vallotton’s print differs from a customary drawing or painting. Where does the man’s body and hair end and the shadows begin? When two areas come together, in this case the man’s body and the room in shadow, and fuse together as a single tone, the phenomenon is called a shape weld. What about the edge of the man’s arm against his jacket? That detail is left for the observer to fill in or disregard. In general, in art, suggesting works better than explicitly showing.
Notice that a drawn outline is not needed when a dark area comes against a light area, like at the man’s jacket and collar, but an outline is needed around the man’s hand and at the bust line of the woman’s dress.
There is a large area of black on the right, comprising more than half of the picture. To show the significance of that, imagine cutting off and removing the right half of the picture so as to change the left half into a separate vertical composition. That might seem reasonable because the details are all on the left half. If you did that, the drama and dominance of the large black area would be lost.
Having a large untouched black or white area within a picture is a highly regarded Chinese and Japanese esthetic, which Vallotton was aware of. Also, notice the brick wall outside the window going perpendicular to the window. By that device, the artist didn’t have to construct a distant scene out the window that would distract from the people. Nonetheless, they are looking out on a scene in a direction that we can’t see.
The name of the print L’Argent means ‒ The Money. Perhaps you would like to construct a backstory for the people in the print to tie in with the title? Is he telling her of a business failure? Is she the one with wealth and growing disenchanted with him?
See one more Vallotton print that is less abstract but more thought provoking in an interpersonal way. The print is called Le Mensonge, that is, The Lie. Who do you think is lying and why?
Vallotton was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints being exhibited in Paris at his time in the late 1800s. He popularized making woodblock prints, which are also known as woodcuts, at a time when most French printmakers were devoted to making lithographic prints. Further, he sparked a renaissance of the woodcut art form which was later picked up by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch and by the German Expressionists.
Japanese prints were reasonably priced in the late 1800s. So much so that Vincent Van Gogh could afford a collection of 660 of them. He even painted copies of some he particularly liked.
Perhaps because of that the Van Gogh Museum, in Amsterdam displays and discusses on its website many Japanese prints and dozens of prints by Vallotton besides hundreds of other French prints that they own.