Giovanni Berio Ligustro - Printmaker, Italy

Came across the website of this Italian printmaker who works under the pseudonym of Ligustro and was born in Imperia (Italy) in 1924. Since 1986 he has dedicated himself exclusively to the study of Japanese coloured woodblock printing and the Nishiki-e techniques in use during the Edo period, creating hand-prints on highly prized paper produced in Japan using traditional craft methods. He gives lectures and practical demonstration to bring this artistic technique and its fascinating history to the general public.
The main website is here: http://www.ligustro.it/
Here is a link contributed by David Bull with more information and larger images: click here for more images . Right click to download pdf.

Paul Jacoulet - on late night TV !!!

Not quite. Earlier this week while switching channels late at night I randomly tuned in an "adult" theme movie....to my surprise hanging in the background was a print by Paul Jacoulet..."The Miraculous Catch" from 1939. A cameraman's closeup of the couple making wild love framed the print just so that it looked like these guys were 'enjoying' the show. I laughed and could not help think if Mr. Jacoulet would have approved and if he had a good sense of humor ?


Anyway this lead is a good excuse to post these photos of Jacoulet taken in January 1946 by famous photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine.


more photos....

Angelo Aversa - Woodcuts

Angelo Aversa 21 June 2009, New England
When I was very young, I began to have a natural predisposition for art but I certainly didn't imagine that one day eventually it would, and should, become my job. It's not an easy row to hoe. The so-called art system--critics, galleries, curators etc.--can be the biggest enemy for an artist. I'm not convinced that a good part of gallerists, curators and critics today do their job well. To be an artist is fantastic because it is a profession where freedom is fundamental.....
Sometimes this freedom gets blurred by the art marketers who promote certain banal themes and artists that are easy to sell. My relationship with the art system is distant because I believe in the excellence of good art over what's fashionable so I will never accept the political and tired reality of the art operators. My biggest wish and ambition was and is to be a great artist mainly for myself. Nothing is more adrenalin-inducing and emotional than to create something from nothing. When I started with the woodcut technique I never thought for a moment I could make a living from it. My main artistic formation was in a bottega darte as an apprentice to a master artist. Trained in this Renaissance way, I needed to have a patron of the arts. In fact my first patrons where and still are my family in Italy and my wife, Mary, who sustains our family and encourages me in my art. In a world where meritocracy is not always recognized, where the economic imbalance is more and more acute and where everything runs at an intolerable velocity, I thank God because there are still some people who look to the future with eyes of goodness and infinite patience. Angelo Aversa 21 June 2009, New England

The Firecracker Press, St. Louis

The Firecracker Press opened shop in February of 2002 as St. Louis, Missouris only graphic design studio and letterpress printshop. They combine antique printing technology with new thinking to design and produce objects that people enjoy seeing and feeling. They use computer design software to conceive ideas but still carve woodblocks and print by hand to produce event posters, business cards, party invitations, advertising and more.