A (VERY) Brief History of Lino Printing

Lino pinting is often seen as the also-ran to woodcuts in the printing world – you don’t see very many artists using the technique. It might have something to do with it’s history… so here goes, a brief history of lino printing:

Early 1900’s, first used in Germany by a group of artists known as Die Brucke, cheap way to produce ‘woodcuts’, more accessible; during the 1st World War it was an easy way to produce anti-propoganda and protest posters/leaflets. So from early on it was seen as an economy product.

Many of us were introduced to it in school, returning home bearing bleeding postulous sores... I was enthusiastic.

I have mentioned before that I love lino, and it’s because of the accessibility,  but also because it is a pleasure to carve and because it is so adaptable. In order to sway the view of lino being an under-dog, I’d like to share with you some of my favourite lino printings, by non-other then Picasso, Matisse and Escher. Firstly Picasso, used lino a lot, and invented a method known as the reduction-print. I won’t bore you with the details, I’ll just show you the nice pictures (both above).

What I love about both Picasso and Matisse is that they used lino-printing to draw with - there's an ease and flow to the carving and image.

Finally, we have Escher, and as usual, we have a mathematically complex image (one that you have probably seen reproduced many times) – it’s incredible how prefectly all three have carved the lino plate… my hands are sore just looking at them.

Enjoy the pics, and if anyone has any favourites, lino or otherwise I’d love to hear it!