Freedom to Read

         It’s time to celebrate the right to read.  Without access to books (and, of course, the literacy to read and understand them) there can be little true freedom, because what is freedom if people are not free to encounter the ideas of others?  I myself have made quite a few pieces celebrating the joys of reading, but today I’ve collected a small selection of other relief printmakers’ views on the subject.  I say a “small” selection because even though I’ve actually got quite a few today, this is only a small fraction of those I found - it’s a very popular subject!

        Perhaps it’s worth taking a moment to consider why the subject of people reading seems to be such a popular one for artists.  I can think of lots of reasons from the practical to the philosophical.

     1. Readers make easy models!  They’re sitting there in front of you, and they’re holding relatively still for long periods of time.

     2.  Maybe there haven’t been so many book readers before 1500 and after 2000, but for a solid five centuries reading was one of the primary forms of recreation - at least for the same populations that made and appreciated relief prints!  That means it was a subject with universal recognition and appeal for artists.

     3. Going further with that, I would think there’s a pretty high correlation between those who value the freedom of expression through art and those who value the freedom of expression through the written word and books.  When you add to that the fact that many relief print artists were/are in fact book illustrators, it’s an even higher correlation.  So yeah, there are lots of artists who celebrate a love of books.

        In choosing which pieces to feature today, I aimed primarily for variety (variety, of course, within my narrow area of relief block prints).  They date from the 18th century (number 4 and 7) to the 21st century (number 8), although most are from the early and mid 20th century.  The artists hail from Belgium/France (number 1), New Zealand (2), Germany/Canada (3), US (4,6, 8,9), France (5), Japan (7), and Mexico (10).  They represent men, women, and children, and casual reading as well as study.  The styles also cover a range of detail, precision, and stylization.  Most are my favored black and white, but of course there are also a couple with color - for variety!

        My favorites are probably 1, 3, and 10.  What about you?  Do any of these pieces make your heart sing?  And what about your favorite books?  We need art and books to provide windows and mirrors, to open our minds, and to keep us free.  Wherever you live, please be sure to speak out against book banning - especially in schools and libraries.

        If you’re interested in more work by these artists, I’ve featured several of them before, although a few were new to me today - which is always fun!  You can see more here: Masereel plus here and here, Little Pretty Pocket-Book plus here and here, Amen plus here, and McGregor-Radin.  I’ll also note that I’ve previously featured quite a few block prints depicting people reading, and while normally I’d post a bunch of 

links to earlier posts, today it seemed too hard to search them up given how many of my posts feature the words “reading” and “book.”  

[Pictures: Illustration from Die Sonne by Frans Masereel, 1926 (Image from Ader);

Portrait of Winston Rhodes, wood block print by Evelyn Page, c. 1934 (Image from Christchurch Gallery);

Young Woman Reading, woodcut by Horst Deppe (Image from Secord Gallery);

A little Boy and Girl reading, wood block print from A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, 1787 (Image from Library of Congress);

Liseuse, wood block print by Lucien Pissarro, c. 1905 (Image from Tate);

Student, wood block print by Irving Amen, 1960 (Image from Reading and Art);

Actor (probably of the Onoe family) as a woman reading a book, wood block print by Katsukawa Shunsho, 18th century (Image from National Museum of Asian Art);

A Quiet Moment, white line woodcut monoprint by Amy McGregor-Radin (Image from 13 Forest);

Man Reading in a Cabin, woodcut by Rockwell Kent, 1920 (Image from MutualArt);

A Woman Reading, wood block print by Alfredo Zalce, 1942 (Image from The Met).]