Block Printmaker Abbe

        Elfriede Abbe (USA, 1919-2012) was a sculptor as well as a printmaker.  She also printed entire books on her printing press.  She observed, “Cutting designs directly in a wood block seems to lend itself to a sense of affinity with objects of nature, landscape, and countryside.”

        Here are two pieces by Abbe, I assume from an entire series on the days of creation.  The Fifth Day, with creatures of the seas and air, is especially interesting.  Most obviously it’s unusual for being printed on marbled paper.  This is an artist’s proof, so I don’t know whether Abbe made her entire edition on this paper, or was just experimenting.  I’m sure she was thinking the watery paper might go well with the watery image.  I think it’s cool, but distracts a bit from the details, which are quite interesting, too.  For example, look how the ray overlaps the fish, jellyfish, squid, and other things around it.  There’s a lot of movement in the composition, as compared with the land animals, which are much more static.

       In addition to Abbe, I’ve featured plenty of other A printmakers in the past.  Follow these links to see:

Albee, Grace

Albers, Josef

Allen, Rick

Ambler, Kent

Anderson, Walter Inglis

Angelo, Valenti

Arnold, Paul Beaver

Azarian, Mary

[Pictures: Genesis I.21, block print by Elfriede Abbe (Image from Flickr);

Sixth Day, block print by Abbe (Image from Flickr).]


A-Z Challenge, all posts for the letter A