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{{short description|Relief printing technique}}
{{for multi|the origins of the technique, development in Asia, and non-artistic use in Europe|Woodblock printing|the related technique invented in the 18th century|Wood engraving}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
[[File:Albrecht Dürer, The Four Horsemen, probably c. 1496-1498, NGA 57123.jpg|thumb|''The Four Horsemen'' {{Circa|1496–98}} by [[Albrecht Dürer]], depicting the [[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]]]

'''Woodcut''' is a [[relief printing]] technique in [[printmaking]]. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with [[Chisel#Gouge|gouges]]—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. The block is cut along the [[wood grain]] (unlike [[wood engraving]], where the block is cut in the end-grain). The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller ([[brayer]]), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.

Multiple colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks (using a different block for each colour). The art of carving the woodcut can be called '''''xylography''''', but this is rarely used in English for images alone, although that term and ''xylographic'' are used in connection with [[block book]]s, which are small books containing text and images in the same block. They became popular in Europe during the latter half of the 15th century. A '''single-sheet woodcut''' is a woodcut presented as a single stand alone image or [[old master print|print]], as opposed to a book illustration.

The older East Asian technique is usually called [[woodblock printing]], covering both carved text and images, typically on the same block. Short books in a similar technique in Europe, mostly made in the 15th century, are called [[blockbook]]s.  "Woodcut" usually refers to images only and has spread around the world from Europe to other parts of Asia, and to Latin America.<ref name="Hammer Museum" />

==Division of labour==
{{more footnotes|date=February 2018}}
[[File:Formschneider.jpg|thumb|upright|''Block Cutter at Work'' woodcut by [[Jost Amman]], 1568]]
In both Europe and East Asia, traditionally the artist only designed the woodcut, and the block-carving was left to specialist craftsmen, called '''{{lang|de|formschneider}}''' or ''block-cutters'', some of whom became well known in their own right. Among these, the best-known are the 16th-century [[Hieronymus Andreae]] (who also used "Formschneider" as his surname), [[Hans Lützelburger]] and [[Jost de Negker]], all of whom ran workshops and also operated as printers and publishers. The {{lang|de|formschneider}} in turn handed the block on to specialist printers. There were further specialists who made the blank blocks.

This is why woodcuts are sometimes described by museums or books as "designed by" rather than "by" an artist; but most authorities do not use this distinction. The division of labour had the advantage that a trained artist could adapt to the medium relatively easily, without needing to learn the use of [[woodworking]] tools.

There were various methods of transferring the artist's drawn design onto the block for the cutter to follow.  Either the drawing would be made directly onto the block (often whitened first), or a drawing on paper was glued to the block. Either way, the artist's drawing was destroyed during the cutting process. Other methods were used, including tracing.

In both Europe and East Asia in the early 20th century, some artists began to do the whole process themselves. In Japan, this movement was called {{nihongo|''[[sōsaku-hanga]]''|創作版画|creative prints}}, as opposed to {{nihongo|''[[shin-hanga]]''|新版画|new prints}}, a movement that retained traditional methods. In the West, many artists used the easier technique of [[linocut]] instead.

==Methods of printing==
[[Image:Justso crabplay.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''The Crab that played with the sea'', Woodcut by [[Rudyard Kipling]] illustrating one of his ''[[Just So Stories]]'' (1902). In mixed white-line (below) and normal woodcut (above).]]

Compared to [[intaglio (printmaking)|intaglio]] techniques like [[etching]] and [[engraving]], only low pressure is required to print. As a relief method, it is only necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. In Europe, a variety of woods including [[boxwood]] and several nut and fruit woods like pear or cherry were commonly used;<ref>Landau & Parshall, 21–22; Uglow, 2006. p. xiii.</ref> in Japan, the wood of the cherry species ''[[Prunus serrulata]]'' was preferred.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

There are three methods of printing to consider:

* Stamping: Used for many fabrics and most early European woodcuts (1400–40). These were printed by putting the paper/fabric on a table or other flat surface with the block on top, and pressing or hammering the back of the block.
* Rubbing: Apparently the most common method for Far Eastern printing on paper at all times. Used for European woodcuts and block-books later in the fifteenth century, and very widely for cloth. Also used for many Western woodcuts from about 1910 to the present. The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top. The back is rubbed with a "hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton".<ref name="Hind">{{Cite book| title = An Introduction to a History of Woodcut | first = Arthur M. | last = Hind | year = 1963 | pages= 64–94 | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Co. 1935 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963 | isbn=978-0-486-20952-4}}</ref> A traditional Japanese tool used for this is called a ''[[Baren (printing tool)|baren]]''. Later in Japan, complex wooden mechanisms were used to help hold the woodblock perfectly still and to apply proper pressure in the printing process. This was especially helpful once multiple colours were introduced and had to be applied with precision atop previous ink layers.
* Printing in a press: presses only seem to have been used in Asia in relatively recent times. [[Printing-press]]es were used from about 1480 for European prints and block-books, and before that for woodcut book illustrations. Simple weighted presses may have been used in Europe before the print-press, but firm evidence is lacking. A deceased Abbess of [[Mechelen]] in 1465 had "''unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines ... cum 14 aliis lapideis printis''"—"an instrument for printing texts and pictures ... with 14 stones for printing". This is probably too early to be a [[Johannes Gutenberg|Gutenberg]]-type printing press in that location.<ref name="Hind"/>

==History==
[[File:Madonna del Fuoco.JPG|thumb|upright|''Madonna del Fuoco'' (''Madonna of the Fire'', {{Circa|1425}}), Cathedral of [[Forlì]], in Italy]]
[[Image:88-minerali. Rena.jpg|thumb|upright|A less sophisticated woodcut book illustration of the ''[[Hortus Sanitatis]]'' [[lapidary]], Venice, Bernardino Benaglio e Giovanni de Cereto (1511)]]

Woodcut originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. The earliest woodblock printed fragments to survive are from China, from the [[Han dynasty]] (before 220), and are of silk printed with flowers in three colours.<ref name="cave">Shelagh Vainker in Anne Farrer (ed), "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas", 1990, British Museum publications, {{ISBN|0-7141-1447-2}}</ref> "In the 13th century the Chinese technique of blockprinting was transmitted to Europe."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Rise of Modern China |last=Hsü |first=Immanuel C. Y. |year= 1970 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-501240-8 |page= 830}}</ref> Paper arrived in Europe, also from China via [[al-Andalus]], slightly later, and was being manufactured in Italy by the end of the thirteenth century, and in Burgundy and Germany by the end of the fourteenth.

In Europe, woodcut is the oldest technique used for [[old master print]]s, developing about 1400, by using, on paper, existing techniques for printing. One of the more ancient single-leaf woodcuts on paper that can be seen today is ''The Fire Madonna'' (''Madonna del Fuoco'', in the Italian language), in the Cathedral of [[Forlì]], in Italy. Initially religious subjects, often very small indeed, were by far the most common. Many were sold to pilgrims at their destination, and glued to walls in homes, inside the lids of boxes, and sometimes even included in bandages over wounds, which was superstitiously believed to help healing.  

The explosion of sales of cheap woodcuts in the middle of the century led to a fall in standards, and many [[popular print]]s were very crude. The development of [[hatching]] followed on rather later than [[engraving]]. [[Michael Wolgemut]] was significant in making German woodcuts more sophisticated from about 1475, and [[Erhard Reuwich]] was the first to use cross-hatching (far harder to do than engraving or [[etching]]). Both of these produced mainly book-illustrations, as did various Italian artists who were also raising standards there at the same period. At the end of the century [[Albrecht Dürer]] brought the Western woodcut to a level that, arguably, has never been surpassed, and greatly increased the status of the "single-leaf" woodcut (i.e. an image sold separately).  He briefly made it equivalent  in quality and status to engravings, before he turned to these himself. 

In the first half of the 16th century, high quality woodcuts continued to be produced in Germany and Italy, where [[Titian]] and other artists arranged for some to be made. Much of the interest was in developing the [[chiaroscuro woodcut]], using multiple blocks printed in different colours. 

Because woodcuts and [[movable type]] are both relief-printed, they can easily be printed together.  Consequently, woodcut was the main medium for book illustrations until the late sixteenth century. The first woodcut book illustration dates to about 1461, only a few years after the beginning of printing with movable type, printed by [[Albrecht Pfister]] in [[Bamberg]]. Woodcut was used less often for individual ("single-leaf") fine-art prints from about 1550 until the late nineteenth century, when interest revived. It remained important for popular prints until the nineteenth century in most of Europe, and later in some places.

The art reached a high level of technical and artistic development in East Asia and [[Iran]]. [[Woodblock printing in Japan]] is called ''moku-hanga'' and was introduced in the seventeenth century for both books and art. The popular "floating world" genre of ''[[ukiyo-e]]'' originated in the second half of the seventeenth century, with prints in [[monochrome]] or two colours. Sometimes these were hand-coloured after printing. Later, prints with many colours were developed. Japanese woodcut became a major artistic form, although at the time it was accorded a much lower status than painting. It continued to develop through to the twentieth century.

==White-line woodcut==
[[File:Preparing a Woodcut Design.jpg|thumb|Using a handheld gouge to cut a "white-line" woodcut design into Japanese plywood. The design has been sketched in chalk on a painted face of the plywood.]]
This technique just carves the image in mostly thin lines, similar to a rather crude engraving. The block is printed in the normal way, so that most of the print is black with the image created by white lines. This process was invented by the sixteenth-century [[Swiss people|Swiss]] artist [[Urs Graf]], but became most popular in the nineteenth and twentieth century, often in a modified form where images used large areas of white-line contrasted with areas in the normal black-line style. This was pioneered by [[Félix Vallotton]].

{{See also|Provincetown Printers}}

==Japonism==
{{Main|Japonism}}
In the 1860s, just as the Japanese themselves were becoming aware of Western art in general, Japanese prints began to reach Europe in considerable numbers and became very fashionable, especially in France. They had a great influence on many artists, notably [[Édouard Manet]], [[Pierre Bonnard]], [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]], [[Edgar Degas]], [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Vincent van Gogh]], [[Félix Vallotton]] and [[Mary Cassatt]].  In 1872, Jules Claretie dubbed the trend "Le Japonisme".<ref>{{Cite book | first = C F | last = Ives | title = The Great Wave: The Influence of Japanese Woodcuts on French Prints | year = 1974 | publisher = [[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]] | isbn = 978-0-87099-098-4 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/greatwaveinflu00ives }}</ref>

Though the Japanese influence was reflected in many artistic media, including painting, it did lead to a revival of the woodcut in Europe, which had been in danger of extinction as a serious art medium. Most of the artists above, except for Félix Vallotton and Paul Gauguin, in fact used [[lithography]], especially for coloured prints. See below for Japanese influence in illustrations for children's books.

Artists, notably [[Edvard Munch]] and [[Franz Masereel]], continued to use the medium, which in [[Modernism]] came to appeal because it was relatively easy to complete the whole process, including printing, in a studio with little special equipment. The German [[Expressionist]]s used woodcut a good deal.

==Colour==
[[Image:Tokaido09 Odawara.jpg|thumb|[[Odawara-juku]] in the 1830s by [[Hiroshige]], from his series ''[[The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō]]'']]

Coloured woodcuts first appeared in ancient China. The oldest known are three Buddhist images dating to the 10th century. European woodcut prints with coloured blocks were invented in Germany in 1508, and are known as [[chiaroscuro]] woodcuts (see below). However, colour did not become the norm, as it did in Japan in the ''ukiyo-e'' and other forms.

In Europe and Japan, colour woodcuts were normally only used for prints rather than book illustrations. In China, where the individual print did not develop until the nineteenth century, the reverse is true, and early colour woodcuts mostly occur in luxury books about art, especially the more prestigious medium of painting. The first known example is a book on ink-cakes printed in 1606, and colour technique reached its height in books on painting published in the seventeenth century. Notable examples are [[Hu Zhengyan]]'s ''Treatise on the Paintings and Writings of the Ten Bamboo Studio'' of 1633,<ref>{{cite web|title=Shi zhu zhai shu hua pu, or, Ten Bamboo Studio collection of calligraphy and painting|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-FH-00910-00083-00098/1|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|access-date=11 August 2015}}</ref> and the ''Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual'' published in 1679 and 1701.<ref>L Sickman & A Soper, "The Art and Architecture of China", Pelican History of Art, 3rd ed 1971, Penguin, LOC 70-125675</ref>
[[File:Eisen1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bijin (beautiful woman) [[ukiyo-e]] by [[Keisai Eisen]], before 1848]]

In Japan colour technique, called [[nishiki-e]] in its fully developed form, spread more widely, and was used for prints, from the 1760s on. Text was nearly always monochrome, as were images in books, but the growth of the popularity of ''ukiyo-e'' brought with it demand for ever-increasing numbers of colours and complexity of techniques. By the nineteenth century most artists worked in colour. The stages of this development were:

*''Sumizuri-e'' (墨摺り絵, "ink printed pictures") – monochrome printing using only black ink
*''[[Benizuri-e]]'' (紅摺り絵, "crimson printed pictures") – red ink details or highlights added by hand after the printing process；green was sometimes used as well
*''Tan-e'' (丹絵) – orange highlights using a red pigment called ''tan''
*''[[Aizuri-e]]'' (藍摺り絵, "indigo printed pictures"), ''Murasaki-e'' (紫絵, "purple pictures"), and other styles that used a single colour in addition to, or instead of, black ink
*''[[Urushi-e]]'' (漆絵) – a method that used glue to thicken the ink, emboldening the image; gold, mica and other substances were often used to enhance the image further. ''Urushi-e'' can also refer to paintings using [[lacquer]] instead of paint; lacquer was very rarely if ever used on prints.
*''[[Nishiki-e]]'' (錦絵, "brocade pictures") – a method that used multiple blocks for separate portions of the image, so a number of colours could achieve incredibly complex and detailed images; a separate block was carved to apply only to the portion of the image designated for a single colour. Registration marks called ''kentō'' (見当) ensured correspondence between the application of each block.

[[File:Randolph Caldecott illustration2.jpg|thumb|upright|Children's book illustration by [[Randolph Caldecott]]; engraving and printing by [[Edmund Evans]], 1887]]

A number of different methods of colour printing using woodcut (technically [[Chromoxylography]]) were developed in Europe in the 19th century. In 1835, [[George Baxter (printer)|George Baxter]] patented a method using an [[Intaglio printing|intaglio]] line plate (or occasionally a [[lithograph]]), printed in black or a dark colour, and then overprinted with up to twenty different colours from woodblocks. [[Edmund Evans]] used relief and wood throughout, with up to eleven different colours, and latterly specialized in illustrations for children's books, using fewer blocks but overprinting non-solid areas of colour to achieve blended colours. Artists such as [[Randolph Caldecott]], [[Walter Crane]] and [[Kate Greenaway]] were influenced by the Japanese prints now available and [[Japonism|fashionable]] in Europe to create a suitable style, with flat areas of colour.
<br>
<gallery heights="250" widths="250" mode="packed" caption="[[Malo-Renault]] colour woodcut for ''les Cent Bibliophiles 1922''">
File:Bois-gravés Menu-Cent-Bibliophile EMR.jpg|alt=Menu of the annual banquet of the Société des Hundred Bibliophiles, on the occasion of the exit from the Jardin de Bérénice by Maurice Barrès|A matrix for each of the 4 colours
File:Bois-gravés, Menu des Cent Bibliophiles (1922), Malo-Renault (1870-1938).jpg|Colour [[printing registration]] 
</gallery>

[[File:Kirchner - Bildnis Otto Mueller.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner]], ''Portrait of [[Otto Mueller|Otto Müller]]'' (1915)]]
In the 20th century, [[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner]] of the [[Die Brücke]] group developed a process of producing coloured woodcut prints using a single block applying different colours to the block with a brush ''[[à la poupée]]'' and then printing (halfway between a woodcut and a [[monotype]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Carey |first1=Frances |last2=Griffiths |first2=Antony |title=The Print in Germany, 1880–1933: The Age of Expressionism |year=1984 |publisher=British Museum Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-7141-1621-1 }}</ref> A remarkable example of this technique is the 1915 ''Portrait of [[Otto Mueller|Otto Müller]]'' woodcut print from the collection of the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=698272&partid=1&IdNum=1983,0416.3&orig=/research/search_the_collection_database/museum_no__provenance_search.aspx |title=Portrait of Otto Müller (1983,0416.3) |work=British Museum Collection Database |publisher=[[British Museum]] |location=London |access-date=5 June 2010 }}</ref>

===Gallery of Asian woodcuts===
<gallery>
Image:WoodcutBuddaChina.jpg|Coloured woodcut of [[Gautama Buddha]], 10th century, China.
Image:Jiao zi.jpg|[[Jiaozi (currency)]], 10th century, [[Sichuan]], China.
File:Sharaku2.jpg|Actor [[Ichikawa Ebizō]] IV as Takemura Sadanoshin, Japanese woodcut by [[Sharaku]], 1794.
File:Ukiyo-e dragon 2.jpg|Dragon, Japanese woodcut by [[Yoshida Gen'ō]], 1892.
Image:Tranh Đông Hồ - Cá chép.jpg|Modern{{when|date=February 2018}} woodcut Carp Painting, [[Đông Hồ painting]], Vietnam.

</gallery>

==Chiaroscuro woodcuts==
[[Image:5154 bassenge anon c16 italian.jpg|thumb|[[Chiaroscuro]] woodcut depicting ''Playing [[cupid]]s'' by anonymous 16th-century Italian artist]]

Chiaroscuro woodcuts are [[old master print]]s in woodcut using two or more blocks printed in different colours; they do not necessarily feature strong contrasts of light and dark. They were first produced to achieve similar effects to chiaroscuro drawings. After some early experiments in book-printing, the true chiaroscuro woodcut conceived for two blocks was probably first invented by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] in Germany in 1508 or 1509, though he backdated some of his first prints and added tone blocks to some prints first produced for monochrome printing, swiftly followed by [[Hans Burgkmair]].<ref>so Landau and Parshall, 179–192; but Bartrum, 179 and ''Renaissance Impressions: Chiaroscuro Woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and the Albertina, Vienna'', [[Royal Academy]], London, March–June 2014, exhibition guide, both credit Cranach with the innovation in 1507.</ref> Despite [[Giorgio Vasari]]'s claim for Italian precedence in [[Ugo da Carpi]], it is clear that his, the first Italian examples, date to around 1516.<ref>Landau and Parshall, 150</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wdct/ho_17.50.1.htm |title=Ugo da Carpi after Parmigianino: Diogenes (17.50.1) &#124; Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History &#124; The Metropolitan Museum of Art |work=Metmuseum.org |date=3 February 2012 |access-date=18 February 2012}}</ref>

Other [[printmaking|printmakers]] to use the technique include [[Hans Baldung]] and [[Parmigianino]]. In the German states the technique was in use largely during the first decades of the sixteenth century, but Italians continued to use it throughout the century, and later artists like [[Hendrik Goltzius]] sometimes made use of it. In the German style, one block usually had only lines and is called the "line block", whilst the other block or blocks had flat areas of colour and are called "tone blocks". The Italians usually used only tone blocks, for a very different effect, much closer to the chiaroscuro drawings the term was originally used for, or to [[watercolour painting]]s.<ref>Landau and Parshall, ''The Renaissance Print'', pp. 179–202; 273–81 & passim; Yale, 1996, {{ISBN|0-300-06883-2}}</ref>

The Swedish printmaker [[Torsten Billman]] (1909–1989) developed during the 1930s and 1940s a variant chiaroscuro technique with several gray tones from ordinary printing ink. The art historian Gunnar Jungmarker (1902–1983) at Stockholm's [[Nationalmuseum]] called this technique "grisaille woodcut". It is a time-consuming printing process, exclusively for hand printing, with several grey-wood blocks aside from the black-and-white key block.<ref>Sjöberg, Leif, ''Torsten Billman and the Wood Engraver's Art'', pp. 165–171. The American Scandinavian Review, Vol. LXI, No. 2, June 1973. New York 1973.</ref>

== Modern woodcut printing in Mexico ==
[[File:José_Guadalupe_Posada,_Calavera_oaxaqueña,_ca._1903.jpg|thumb|José Guadalupe Posada, ''Calavera Oaxaqueña'', 1910]]
Woodcut printmaking became a popular form of art in Mexico during the early to mid 20th century.<ref name="Hammer Museum">{{Cite web|url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2008/gouge-the-modern-woodcut-1870-to-now/|title=Gouge: The Modern Woodcut 1870 to Now – Hammer Museum|website=The Hammer Museum|access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref> The medium in Mexico was used to convey political unrest and was a form of political activism, especially after the [[Mexican Revolution]] (1910–1920). In Europe, Russia, and China, woodcut art was being used during this time as well to spread leftist politics such as socialism, communism, and anti-fascism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hung|first=Chang-Tai|date=1997|title=Two images of Socialism: Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=39|issue=1|pages=34–60|jstor=179238}}</ref> In Mexico, the art style was made popular by [[José Guadalupe Posada]], who was known as the father of graphic art and printmaking in Mexico and is considered the first Mexican modern artist.<ref name="McDonald-2016">{{Cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prmx/hd_prmx.htm|title=Printmaking in Mexico, 1900–1950|last=McDonald|first=Mark|date=2016|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref><ref name="Azuela-1993">{{Cite journal|last=Azuela|first=Alicia|date=1993|title=El Machete and Frente a Frente: Art Committed to Social Justice in Mexico|journal=Art Journal|volume=52|issue=1|pages=82–87|doi=10.2307/777306|issn=0004-3249|jstor=777306}}</ref> He was a satirical cartoonist and an engraver before and during the [[Mexican Revolution]] and he popularized Mexican folk and indigenous art. He created the woodcut engravings of the iconic skeleton (''calaveras'') figures that are prominent in Mexican arts and culture today (such as in Disney Pixar's [[Coco (2017 film)|Coco]]).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wright|first=Melissa W.|date=2017|title=Visualizing a country without a future: Posters for Ayotzinapa, Mexico and the struggles against state terror.|journal=Geoforum|volume=102|pages=235–241|doi=10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.10.009|s2cid=149103719|doi-access=free}}</ref> See [[La Calavera Catrina]] for more on Posada's ''calaveras''.

In 1921, [[Jean Charlot]], a French printmaker moved to [[Mexico City]]. Recognizing the importance of Posada's woodcut engravings, he started teaching woodcut techniques in [[Coyoacán]]'s open-air art schools. Many young Mexican artists attended these lessons including the [[Fernando Leal (artist)|Fernando Leal]].<ref name="McDonald-2016" /><ref name="Azuela-1993"/><ref name="Montgomery-2011">{{Cite journal|last=Montgomery|first=Harper|date=December 2011|title="Enter for Free": Exhibiting Woodcuts on a Street Corner in Mexico City|journal=Art Journal|volume=70|issue=4|pages=26–39|doi=10.1080/00043249.2011.10791070|s2cid=191506425|issn=0004-3249}}</ref>

After the Mexican Revolution, the country was in political and social upheaval - there were worker strikes, protests, and marches. These events needed cheap, mass-produced visual prints to be pasted on walls or handed out during protests.<ref name="McDonald-2016" /> Information needed to be spread quickly and cheaply to the general public.<ref name="McDonald-2016" /> Many people were still illiterate during this time and there was push after the Revolution for widespread education. In 1910 when the Revolution began, only 20% of Mexican people could read.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1 September 1975|title=Mexico: An Emerging Nation's Struggle Toward Education|journal=Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education|volume=5|issue=2|pages=8–10|doi=10.1080/03057927509408824|issn=0305-7925}}</ref> Art was considered to be highly important in this cause and political artists were using journals and newspapers to communicate their ideas through illustration.<ref name="Azuela-1993" /> ''El Machete'' (1924–29) was a popular communist journal that used woodcut prints.<ref name="Azuela-1993" /> The woodcut art served well because it was a popular style that many could understand.

Artists and activists created collectives such as the [[Taller de Gráfica Popular]] (TGP) (1937–present) and [[¡30-30!|The Treintatreintistas]] (1928–1930) to create prints (many of them woodcut prints) that reflected their socialist and communist values.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Avila|first=Theresa|date=4 May 2014|title=El Taller de Gráfica Popular and the Chronicles of Mexican History and Nationalism|journal=Third Text|volume=28|issue=3|pages=311–321|doi=10.1080/09528822.2014.930578|s2cid=145728815|issn=0952-8822}}</ref><ref name="Montgomery-2011" /> The TGP attracted artists from all around the world including African American printmaker [[Elizabeth Catlett]], whose woodcut prints later influenced the art of social movements in the US in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name="Hammer Museum" /> The Treintatreintistas even taught workers and children. The tools for woodcut are easily attainable and the techniques were simple to learn. It was considered an art for the people.<ref name="Montgomery-2011" />

Mexico at this time was trying to discover its identity and develop itself as a unified nation. The form and style of woodcut [[aesthetic]] allowed a diverse range of topics and visual culture to look unified. Traditional, folk images and avant-garde, modern images, shared a similar aesthetic when it was engraved into wood. An image of the countryside and a traditional farmer appeared similar to the image of a city.<ref name="Montgomery-2011" /> This symbolism was beneficial for politicians who wanted a unified nation. The physical actions of carving and printing woodcuts also supported the values many held about manual labour and supporting workers' rights.<ref name="Montgomery-2011" />

=== Current woodcut practices in Mexico ===
Today, in Mexico the activist woodcut tradition is still alive. In Oaxaca, a collective called the ''Asamblea De Artistas Revolucionarios De Oaxaca'' (ASARO) was formed during the [[2006 Oaxaca protests]]. They are committed to social change through woodcut art.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jsma.uoregon.edu/ASARO|title=ASARO—Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca {{!}} Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art|website=jsma.uoregon.edu|access-date=24 March 2019}}</ref> Their prints are made into wheat-paste posters which are secretly put up around the city.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/03/oaxaca-revolutionary-street-art-170320085056182.html|title=Oaxaca's revolutionary street art|last1=Graham De La Rosa|first1=Michael|last2=Gilbert|first2=Samuel|date=25 March 2017|website=Al Jazeera|access-date=23 March 2019}}</ref> Artermio Rodriguez is another artist who lives in Tacambaro, Michoacán who makes politically charged woodcut prints about contemporary issues.<ref name="Hammer Museum" />

==Famous works in woodcut==
<!-- ONLY examples with their own articles please! -->
Europe
* {{Lang|la|[[Ars moriendi]]}}
* [[Dürer's Rhinoceros]]
* [[Emblem book]]s
* [[Apocalypse (Dürer)|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]
* ''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]''
* ''[[Just So Stories]]''
* [[Lubok]] prints
* [[Nuremberg Chronicle]]
Japan (''[[Ukiyo-e]]'')
* ''[[Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre]]''
* ''[[The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife]]''
* ''[[Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji]]'' (includes ''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa]]'')

==Notable artists==
[[File:'The Prophet', woodcut by Emil Nolde, 1912.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Prophet'', woodcut by [[Emil Nolde]], 1912, various collections]]
{{columnslist|colwidth=20em|
* [[Irving Amen]]
* [[Mary Azarian]]
* [[Aubrey Beardsley]]
* [[Hans Baldung]]
* [[Leonard Baskin]]
* [[Gustave Baumann]]
* [[Torsten Billman]]
* [[Carroll Thayer Berry]]
* [[Emma Bormann]]
* [[Erich Buchholz]]
* [[Hans Burgkmair]]
* [[Domenico Campagnola]]
* [[Ugo da Carpi]]
* [[Billy Childish]]
* [[Salvador Dalí]]
* [[Gustave Doré]]
* [[Albrecht Dürer]]
* [[M. C. Escher]]
* [[Jim Flora|James Flora]]
* [[Antonio Frasconi]]
* [[Franz Gertsch]]
* [[Robert Gibbings]]
* [[Vincent van Gogh]]
* [[Urs Graf]]
* [[HAP Grieshaber]]
* [[Suzuki Harunobu]]
* [[Hiroshige]]
* [[Damien Hirst]]
* [[Jacques Hnizdovsky]]
* [[Hokusai]]
* [[Tom Huck]]
* [[Stephen Huneck]]
* [[Alfred Garth Jones]]
* [[Hussein El Gebaly]]
* [[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner]]
* [[Georgy Kovenchuk|Gaga Kovenchuk]]
* [[Käthe Kollwitz]]
* [[J.J. Lankes]]
* [[James Duard Marshall]]
* [[Frans Masereel]]
* [[Hishikawa Moronobu]]
* [[Edvard Munch]]
* [[Emil Nolde]]
* [[Giovanni Battista Palumba]] (Master I.B. with a Bird)
* [[Jacob Pins]]
* [[J. G. Posada]]
* [[Endi E. Poskovic]]
* [[Peter Roempert]]
* [[Hannah Tompkins (artist)|Hannah Tompkins]]
* [[Henriette Tirman]]
* [[Clément Serveau]]
* [[Paul Signac]]
* [[Eric Slater]]
* [[Marcelo Soares]]
* [[Utamaro]]
* [[Félix Vallotton]]
* [[Karel Vik]]
* [[Leopold Wächtler]]
* [[Sylvia Solochek Walters]]
* [[Susan Dorothea White]]
}}

==Stonecut==
{{see also|Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak}}
In parts of the world (such as the [[arctic]]) where wood is rare and expensive, the woodcut technique is used with stone as the medium<!-- I don't think that this is the correct word, revision welcome --> for the engraved image.<ref>{{cite AV media |title = Eskimo Artist Kenojuak |url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/eskimo-artist-kenojuak/ | publisher = National Film Board of Canada | year = 1963 | author = John Feeney}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col}}
* {{Annotated link |Block book}}
* {{Annotated link |Chiaroscuro}}
* {{Annotated link |Cordel literature}}
* {{Annotated link |Linocut}}
* {{Annotated link |Metalcut}}
* {{Annotated link |Old master print}}
* {{Annotated link |Printmaking}}
* {{Annotated link |Rubber stamp}}
* {{Annotated link |Shin-hanga}}
* {{Annotated link |Sōsaku-hanga}}
* {{Annotated link |Wood carving}}
* {{Annotated link |Woodblock printing}}
* {{Annotated link |Ukiyo-e}}
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*[[Giulia Bartrum|Bartrum, Giulia]]; ''German Renaissance Prints, 1490–1550''; British Museum Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-7141-2604-7}}.
* {{cite book | title=A Woodcut Manual | publisher=H. Holt | author=Lankes, JJ | year=1932}}
* David Landau & Peter Parshall, ''The Renaissance Print'', Yale, 1996, {{ISBN|0-300-06883-2}}.
* {{cite book | title=Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick | publisher=Faber and Faber | author=Uglow, Jenny | year=2006}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Woodcuts}}
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm Ukiyo-e] from the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] Timeline of Art History
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wdct/hd_wdct.htm Woodcut in Europe] from the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] Timeline of Art History
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wifb/hd_wifb.htm Italian Renaissance Woodcut Book Illustration from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History]
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/94303/rec/1 Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on woodcuts
*[http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/whatisaprint/flash.html Museum of Modern Art information on printing techniques and examples of prints.]
*[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/heavenlycraft/heavenly-15th.html Woodcut in early printed books] (online exhibition from the [[Library of Congress]])
*A collection of woodcuts images can be found at the [http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOBOX3=woodcut&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOFIELD2=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOFIELD3=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=all&CISOOP1=all&CISOOP2=exact&CISOOP3=any&CISOOP4=none University of Houston Digital Library] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101105558/http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOBOX3=woodcut&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOFIELD2=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOFIELD3=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=all&CISOOP1=all&CISOOP2=exact&CISOOP3=any&CISOOP4=none |date=1 November 2012 }})
* ''[http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11359/ Meditations, or the Contemplations of the Most Devout]'' is a 15th-century publication that is considered the first Italian illustrated book, using early woodcut techniques.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Relief printing]]
[[Category:Woodcuts| ]]

[[fi:Taidegrafiikka#Puupiirros]]