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2008 "The Voice of the Activist." Gouge: The Modern Woodcut 1870 to Now. pp. 9-13. LUHRING AUGUSTINE 531 West 24th Street New York NY 10011 tel 212 206 9100 fax 212 206 9055 www.luhringaugustine.com [[image]] THE VOICE OF THE ACTIVIST Works on paper often reveal with particular intimacy the touch of the maker's hand. Frequently associated with the private world of artists, they seem to allow a glance at the creator's thoughts, much like reading a diary. While woodcuts are certainly used for these more intimate expressions the medium has also been a powerful vehicle for public expression. The gouge line can be loud and evocative and is associated with a strong tradition of social and political activism. Created with accessible and low-cost materials, woodcuts offer the artist in most parts of the world the freedom to work independently. The examples gathered here, whether from Mexico, Germany, Korea, or elsewhere, all carry the weight of the artist's hand and mind, and in them we encounter a new monumentality in size and message. However diverse in origin and motivation, the works gathered in this room confront the realities of history while highlighting the malleable possibilities of the woodcut. The largest work on display is The Pseudo-Republic and the Revolution by Carmelo González Iglesias, a visual outcry depicting the Cuban Revolution and a tour-de-force of loaded imagery and technical bravado. It was finished in Havana in 1960, a year after the dramatic overthrow of General Fulgencio Batista's government, which was led primarily by Fidel Castro and rebel troops. González had planned to compose the print out of two blocks, but in a letter describing the work he admits that since political events were unfolding by the day, he kept adding to the composition until it reached the width of "seven blocks!4 He advises reading the work from right to left, "the same route as the history of Cuba." The artist's vocabulary is rich with symbolic associations. At center, three superimposed hands refer to the stages of protest: an open hand indicates initial resistance to the government; a tight fist symbolizes wrath; and finally, we see the fist that is compelled to clutch a weapon. Similar emblematic imagery appears in the work of González pupil, Luis Peñalver Collazo, who simulates the conflict between Latin America and imperialism with two broad, shady figures in battle (1960). Although conceived to serve as street banners, these examples of mural-like prints were given to an American scholar by Ernesto "Che" Guevara himself.5 The Cuban woodcuts are related to a tradition of activist print-making initiated in Mexico in the 1930s. The heritage of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada's late-nineteenth-century broadside illustrations, especially his satirical scenes populated by calaveras (skeletons), can be seen in the public art that continued to flourish Above: Georg Baselitz, The Eagle, 1981. Woodcut printed in black, 25 1/2 x 19 5/8 in. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (c) Georg Baselitz. Image (c) V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Opposite page: Peter Howson. The Heroic Dosser (detail). 1987. Woodcut printed in black, 69 7/8 x 45 15/16 in. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (c) 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London. Image (c) V&A IMages/Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 4 Letter from Carmelo González Iglesias to Gordon L. Fuglie, former curator at the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, dated October 1, 1984. The final dimensions are 51 7/8 by 169 inches. 5 See Lynn Anderson and Gordon L. Fuglie, Three Murals from Revolutionary Cuba, 1960 (brochure for an exhibition at the Wright Art Gallery, UCLA, 1985).
