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But enough. That sort of game is all too easy
... pick very bad prints for comparison, and
anything will look good! But connoisseurs
who really know what woodblock prints should
be ... they are not fooled by these tricks.
Here's one of the prints from my first Surimono
Album, a design by Shibata Zeshin:
Let's get up close with part of it ...
Those small curliques are ... what shall I say -
less than elegantly carved. The curves are raw and
ragged; they're not much better than that ten-year
old calligraphy sample I showed you a few pages
back!
Here's a quote from William Ivins, a former
curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (speaking
here about nineteenth century reproductions of old
European woodcuts, but in words that would apply to
my own reproductions ...)
"Every line is different - every
line is stupid - and the whole character has
changed ..."
But aren't I being a bit hard on myself here?
Those lines are extremely small; is it
possible for such tiny things to be carved with
elegance? Well, if we change the verb tense in that
question ... " was it possible for such tiny
things be carved with elegance?" ... I can answer
it easily: yes!
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