Pete III, 1999, linocut, image 4 x 2¼ in.

These prints are some of the results of my latest experiments with linoleum. Although they may resemble intaglio or some kind of intaglio-relief hybrid, they are true relief prints, printed in two colors (not three) from two linoleum blocks. The two most important things about them is (1) that I cut the designs with a needle and (2)that I printed the dark color first and the light color second.

The basic technique is a variation on the reduction linocut invented by Picasso and his printer Arnera in Vallauris in 1959. I've always liked those prints but there are a few odd ones that at first glance don't look like linocuts, and when an artist friend of mine pointed them out to me I knew immediately this was something I could use. They are black line prints but a long way from Dürer or even Maillol! The easy, cursive flow and fineness of the lines show that Picasso cut the line itself with a gouge, rather than cutting away everything but the line as in traditional woodcutting. (Some examples at the Metropolitan are Bacchanalia B. 927, Picador, Woman & Horse B. 913, and Embrace I & II, B. 1150 and B. 1151 of the Kramer collection.)


It was a simple and elegant time-saving trick: Print a solid black ground first, then cut your design with a gouge and print it over the black in white ink--or some other color, as long as it's pale and opaque. The cut lines show through as black. Though these are called "reduction prints" in the literature, meaning that only one block was used, I don't believe they really are. In any case there would be no point in using the same block for both colors, since only one of them was cut. If two blocks were used, then it turns out that Picasso missed a good bet.

By that I mean: highlights can be cut into the black ground block, as in my Double Indemnity, Moths, Makeup and others. That was the second thing I discovered. The first was that I could "draw" into the linoleum with a drypoint needle instead of cutting with a gouge or knife. Black Stockings V was my first attempt. I began cutting the image with a gouge but after a few lines, on a whim, I picked up a diamond tipped drypoint needle that happened to be lying there on my work table and gave it a try. I never picked up the gouge again!--although I've found since that a burin works well for bolder lines.

It turned out that the diamond point was important. A regular steel Whistler's needle won't cut it--it hangs up in the lino. But the diamond point sails right through, plowing up a burr like a drypoint. I remove the burr with steel wool.

  Anyway, once all that was worked out, plus a good method of registration, I found I could draw freely on the linoleum in more or less the same way I draw with a pen or pencil on paper and that all those lines, no matter how fine, would be preserved in the print. This is exactly what I wanted to achieve in printmaking--without having to go through all the time-devouring routines of intaglio or lithography. I find that with this kind of printmaking I still have time for my painting and sculpture, which was never the case when I was doing etchings, mezzotints, silk screens or wood engraving. This method of linocut is as direct and intuitive as drypoint--with a lot of possibilities for color and contrast that drypoint doesn't have--and a lot easier to print. It's possible, by the way, to print these blocks so that the print looks like drypoint or even mezzotint, while being capable of much larger editions than either. The drawbacks are that everything has to be just right--ink, paper, pressure, etc.--or it won't work. But after all that's pretty much the case with any print medium.

Of course the technique is secondary to the image, but I hope these technical aspects will be of interest to connoisseurs of prints and students of printmaking. The images shown here represent my first attempts in this odd medium. More will follow.

Warren Criswell