Linocut, also known aslino print,lino printing orlinoleum art, is aprintmaking technique, a variant ofrelief printing in which a sheet oflinoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for arelief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shapedchisel orgouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called abrayer), and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with aprinting press.
Multi-color linocuts can be made by successively printing with a different block for each color as in acolor woodcut, as the artists of theGrosvenor School frequently did. AsPablo Picasso demonstrated, such prints can also be achieved using a single piece of linoleum in what is called the "reductive" print method. Essentially, after each successive color is imprinted onto the paper, the artist then cleans the lino plate and cuts away what will not be imprinted for the subsequently applied color.[1]
Since the material being carved has nodirectional grain and does not tend to split, it is easier to obtain certain artistic effects with lino than with most woods, although the resultant prints lack the often angular grainy character of woodcuts. Lino is generally much easier to cut than wood, especially when heated, but the pressure of the printing process degrades the plate faster and it is difficult to create larger works due to the material's lack of rigidity.
Due to ease of use, linocut is widely used in schools to introduce children to the art of printmaking, using it to complete many tasks in the art lesson rather than going straight for the pencil and eraser. Similarly, non-professional artists often cut lino rather than wood for printing. Nevertheless, in the contemporary art world the linocut is an established professional print medium, because of its extensive use by the artists of theExpressionist art movement, Grosvenor School, followed by Pablo Picasso andHenri Matisse.
"Linoleum art" was first displayed in New York City in 1911 by the Czech émigréVojtěch Preissig. In his publications on linocuts (1926–29) the respected American printmaker,Pedro Joseph de Lemos, simplified the methods for art schools and introduced new techniques for color linocuts, including the printing of the key block first.[2] The first large-scale color linocuts made by an American artist were createdc. 1943–45 byWalter Inglis Anderson, and exhibited at theBrooklyn Museum in 1949.
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