Block Printmaker Cook

        There’s a definite Art Deco feel to the work of Howard Norton Cook (USA, 1901-1980).  Check out the smooth geometry, dramatic lighting, and swooping perspectives of these pieces.  They even represent Art Deco’s twin attractions to the glamour of ancient empires and the sleek power of modernism.

        These are wood engravings, carved with very fine, precise lines rather than rough gouges, and the careful crosshatching and variety of textures of the miniature fields is particularly impressive.  I love the punches of pure white on the airplane and roads, but I also love how the darkness of the pueblo, with no white at all, evokes moonlight.  I don’t know whether the dark paper was always this dark - whether Cook chose a dark beige paper, or whether it’s darkened with age.  In any case, I think it looks good this way.

     

        See more C artists with these links:

Catlett, Elizabeth

Chittaprosad

Clark, Arthur Bridgeman

Close, Chuck

Cueni, August

Cyganik, Katarzyna

[Pictures: Airplane, wood engraving by Howard Norton Cook, 1931;

Taos Pueblo, Moonlight, wood engraving by Cook, 1927 (Images from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).]




A-Z Challenge, all posts for the letter C