PROVINCETOWN PRINTS: WHITE-LINE WOODCUT PRINTS FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDWARD YASUNA

MARCH 13 - MAY 25

Publicly displayed for the first time, the Edward Yasuna collection offers an opportunity to view the evolution of a uniquely American innovation, the white-line woodcut print, a form of relief printmaking developed on Cape Cod at the beginning of the 20th century.

Edith Lake Wilkinson, circa 1913, is believed to be the first artist to employ the white-line method, a technique based upon centuries old, traditional Japanese woodblock printing. Unlike the Japanese collaborative approach to printmaking which involved an artist, carver, printer and publisher, the white-line technique is less complicated and more direct, with a sole artist working independently on a single block. The white-line process starts with an artist generating a design and carving it into a soft wood block, one individual area of the block is painted with watercolor, covered with a sheet of paper and rubbed, typically with a spoon, to transfer the painted design to the paper. The paper pinned to the block on one side is folded back, the block cleaned, and the process repeated until all the individual areas of color are printed. The resulting print is a monoprint, meaning each print is unique. The name of the technique comes from the founding artists’ choice to deliberately carve grooves in the block to separate different areas of color resulting in distinct white lines on the print.

Early white-line print practitioners applied a European Modernist approach to their subjects, employing Cubist elements–use of multiple perspectives, geometric shapes, fragmented forms, and spatial ambiguity. Flat patterning, aerial perspectives, precise details, clear outlines, and a focus on local, popular subject matter recall the primary influence of 17th-19th century Japanese among artists in the Cape Cod community’s colony.  In Provincetown, sunlit local architecture, sailboats, and domestic interiors appealed to makers and buyers alike.

Blanche Lazzell, a founding member of the Provincetown Printers and a master of the technique said this about the art form:

“Originality, simplicity, freedom of expression, and above all sincerity, with a clean cut block, are characteristics of a good wood block print.”

The Yasuana collection exemplifies all those qualities and updates us with recent examples made by contemporary artists who continue to explore and expand the genre.