Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

technique, a variant of

relief printing Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix (printing), matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on th ...

in which a sheet of

linoleum Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), Pine Resin, pine resin, ground Cork (material), cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a Hessian fabric, hes ...

(sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped

chisel A chisel is a hand tool with a characteristic Wedge, wedge-shaped cutting edge on the end of its blade. A chisel is useful for carving or cutting a hard material such as woodworking, wood, lapidary, stone, or metalworking, metal. Using a chi ...

gouge Gouge may refer to: *Gouge (chisel), a form of chisel or adze; a woodworking tool *Gouge (grape), another name for the European wine grape Gouais blanc **Gouge noir, another name for the French wine grape Gouget noir *Eye-gouging (rugby union), an ...

, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called a

brayer A brayer is a hand-tool used historically in printing and printmaking to break up and "rub out" (spread) ink, before it was "beaten" using Ink ball, inking balls or composition rollers. A brayer consists of a short wooden cylinder with a handle fi ...

), and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

. Multi-color linocuts can be made by successively printing with a different block for each color as in a

color woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

, as the artists of the Grosvenor School frequently did. As

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

demonstrated, such prints can also be achieved using a single piece of linoleum in what is called the "reductive" print method. Essentially, after each successive color is imprinted onto the paper, the artist then cleans the lino plate and cuts away what will not be imprinted for the subsequently applied color.Judging the Authenticity of Prints by The Masters
by David Rudd Cycleback. Retrieved: 2011-12-17.

Technique

Since the material being carved has no directional grain and does not tend to split, it is easier to obtain certain artistic effects with lino than with most woods, although the resultant prints lack the often angular grainy character of woodcuts. Lino is generally much easier to cut than wood, especially when heated, but the pressure of the printing process degrades the plate faster and it is difficult to create larger works due to the material's lack of rigidity. Due to ease of use, linocut is widely used in schools to introduce children to the art of printmaking, using it to complete many tasks in the art lesson rather than going straight for the pencil and eraser. Similarly, non-professional artists often cut lino rather than wood for printing. Nevertheless, in the contemporary art world the linocut is an established professional print medium, because of its extensive use by the artists of the Expressionist art movement, Grosvenor School, followed by Pablo Picasso and

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

Emergence of the technique in America

"Linoleum art" was first displayed in New York City in 1911 by the Czech émigré

Vojtěch Preissig Vojtěch Preissig (also, Voitech Preissig) (31 July 1873 – 11 June 1944) was a Czech typographer, printmaker, designer, illustrator, painter and teacher. He studied in Prague at the School of Applied Industrial Art (in Friedrich Ohmann's D ...

. In his publications on linocuts (1926–29) the respected American printmaker,

Pedro Joseph de Lemos Pedro Joseph de Lemos (25 May 1882 – 5 December 1954) was an American painter, printmaker, architect, illustrator, writer, lecturer, museum director and art educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to about 1930 he used the simpler name Pe ...

, simplified the methods for art schools and introduced new techniques for color linocuts, including the printing of the key block first. The first large-scale color linocuts made by an American artist were created by

Walter Inglis Anderson Walter Inglis Anderson (September 29, 1903 – November 30, 1965) was an American painter and writer. Anderson died from cancer November 30, 1965, at the age of 62. Early life and education Anderson was born in New Orleans to George Walter A ...

, and exhibited at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

in 1949.

Selected artists

Josef Albers Josef Albers ( , , ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and Visual arts education, educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States. Born in 1888 in Bottrop, Westp ...

, German *

Peeter Allik Peeter Allik (June 28, 1966 in Põltsamaa – December 31, 2019 in Tartu) was an Estonian artist and Surrealist (black and white dactyloscopic tendency). Biography He graduated from University of Tartu. In 1997, he became the first laureate o ...

, Estonian * Valenti Angelo, American printmaker and illustrator *

American *

Sybil Andrews Sybil Andrews (19 April 1898 – 21 December 1992) was an English-Canadian artist who specialised in printmaking and is best known for her modernist linocuts. Life in England Born in 1898 in Bury St Edmunds, Andrews was unable to go straight t ...

English-Canadian *

Hans Anton Aschenborn Hans Anton Aschenborn (1 February 1888 – 10 April 1931) was a renowned animal painter of African wildlife. He is the father of Dieter Aschenborn and the grandfather of Hans Ulrich Aschenborn, both painters. Hans Anton worked both in Germany an ...

, German *

Torsten Billman Torsten Edvard Billman (6 May 1909 – 6 April 1989) was a Swedish artist who worked as a printmaker, illustrator, and buon fresco painter. He counts as one of the 20th century's premier wood-engravers.Emma Bormann Emma Bormann (1887–1974) was an Austrian artist (primarily a printmaker) who lived in Vienna, Shanghai, Tokyo] and Riverside, California. Biography Emma Bormann was born in 1887 in Vienna. Her father, Eugen Bormann (1842–1917), was an arc ...

, Austrian *

Gail Brodholt Gail Brodholt is an English artist known primarily for her oil paintings and linocut prints. She lives in Beckenham and works in Woolwich, both in South East London. Background Brodholt studied at the School of Fine Art at Kensington University ...

, English *

Horace Brodzky Horace Ascher Brodzky (30 January 1885 – 11 February 1969) was an Australian-born artist and writer most of whose work was created in London and New York. His work included paintings, drawings and linocuts, of which he was an early pioneer. An ...

, Australian/British artist * Angel Botello, Spanish-Puerto Rican artist * Margaret Burroughs, American artist *

Carlos Cortez Carlos Cortez (August 13, 1923 – January 19, 2005) was a postwar and contemporary artist who was also a poet, printmaker, graphic artist, photographer, songwriter, editor, muralist, and political activist. He was a member of the Industrial Wor ...

, American poet and artist *

David Call David Steven Call (born August 14, 1982) is an American actor. Early life Call was born in Issaquah, Washington. He is a graduate student of the Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Career Call's first acti ...

, American Deaf artist *

Stanley Donwood Dan Rickwood (born 29 October 1968), known professionally as Stanley Donwood, is an English artist and writer. Since 1994, he has created all the artwork for the rock band Radiohead with their singer, Thom Yorke, plus many of Yorke's other proj ...

, British artist * Yvonne Drewry, English artist *

Janet Doub Erickson Janet Ann Doub Erickson (June 29, 1924 – September 3, 2021) was an American graphic artist and writer who popularized linoleum-block and woodblock printing in the post-World War II period. She was a co-founder of the Blockhouse of Boston, an in ...

, American printmaker and artist *

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; ; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were Mathematics and art, inspired by mathematics. Despite wide popular int ...

, Dutch artist *

Bill Fick Bill Fick is a printmaker living and working in Durham, North Carolina. Fick is the director of Cockeyed Press, which specializes in the production of satirical linocut prints and book production. He is also a member of the Outlaw Printmakers. Fi ...

, American printmaker and illustrator * Folly Cove Designers American design collective *

Jacques Hnizdovsky Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915 – 1985, born Yakiv Yakovych Hnizdovsky) was a Ukrainian-born American painter, printmaker, graphic designer, illustrator and sculptor. Biography Jacques Hnizdovsky was born on January 27, 1915, in Ukraine in wha ...

, Ukrainian/American * William Kermode, Australian * Gaga Kovenchuk, Russian *

, French painter *

, Spanish painter * Cyril Edward Power, English artist *

Everett Ruess Everett Ruess (March 28, 1914 – ) was an American artist, poet, and writer. He carried out solo explorations of the High Sierra, the California coast, and the deserts of the American Southwest. In 1934, he disappeared while traveling through a ...

, American *

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in R ...

, German printmaker and painter * John Shaw, American/Canadian painter and printmaker * Irena Sibley, Australian * James Blanding Sloan, American *

Ethel Spowers Ethel Louise Spowers (11 July 1890 – 5 May 1947) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. She was especially known for her linocuts, which are included in the collections of major Australian and ...

, Australian printmaker *

Ken Sprague Kenneth Ray Sprague (born July 14, 1945) is an American bodybuilder, businessman, author and school teacher. He is best known as the owner of the original Gold's Gym in Venice, Los Angeles, which he purchased and managed between the years 1972 ...

, English artist *

Frank Weitzel Frank Weitzel (22 November 190522 February 1932) was a linocut printmaker and sculptor from New Zealand, who studied in San Francisco and Munich before moving to Sydney and then London. A promising artist, he died of tetanus on the cusp of his fi ...

, New Zealand * Hannah Tompkins, American *

Tom Hazelmyer Tom Hazelmyer (born 1965) is an American musician and printmaker. He is known as the founder and owner of the independent label Amphetamine Reptile Records as well as being the lead vocalist and songwriter for the band Halo of Flies. Biograph ...

, American *

Gwen Frostic Gwen Frostic (April 26, 1906 – April 25, 2001) born as Sara Gwendolen Frostic, was an American artist, entrepreneur, author, and Michigan Women's Hall of Fame inductee. A lifelong resident of Michigan, Frostic is known for her naturalist, Lino ...

, American *

Vanessa Lubach Vanessa Lubach is a British artist noted for her unusually intricate and many-layered prints using linseed oil inks, as well as for her paintings and her book illustrations. She lives and works in Norfolk. Training Lubach grew up in rural Oxfor ...

, British *

Paweł Brodzisz Paweł Brodzisz (pronounced �pavɛw ˈbrɔd͡ʑiʂ born 15 February 1975) is a Polish painter, photographer, graphic artist, miniaturist, and illustrator whose works have been exhibited both in Poland and internationally. He is also a regi ...

, Polish artist

References

External links

Large scale hand printed linocut video

Explanation of art term 'Linocut' on Tate Gallery website

The Lino Printing Process
{{Authority control Printmaking Relief printing * fi:Taidegrafiikka#Linoleikkaus

Technique

Emergence of the technique in America

Selected artists

See also

References

Further reading

External links