Historical Black-and-white art: Repost
Anne
I am currently participating in art historical research on the history
of black and white art (cartoons, caricatures etc).
Any information on research resources (such as the International Museum
of Cartoon art in Florida, historical archives of political/social
comment cartooning in libraries or museums etc, black-and-white artists
clubs etc) would be much appreciated. My research does NOT cover the
history of animation or cartoon strips and comic books, but I hope
someone may have information in any case.
Please e-mail if you have info.
With thanks,
Anne Ryan
College of Fine Arts
Sydney, Australia
Bob Speel
In article: <4m6937$5...@mirv.unsw.edu.au> Anne <A.R...@unsw.edu.au>
writes:
>
> I am currently participating in art historical research on the history
> of black and white art (cartoons, caricatures etc).
> Any information on research resources (such as the International Museum
> of Cartoon art in Florida, historical archives of political/social
> comment cartooning in libraries or museums etc, black-and-white artists
> clubs etc) would be much appreciated.
>
>
> With thanks,
> Anne Ryan
> College of Fine Arts
> Sydney, Australia
Line Illustrations of 19th C Britain
Regarding Black and white art in the 19th C, one of the main driving forces
was of course to supply the daily newspapers and weekly and monthly
magazines with pictures. In England, the place to start would be the books
by Walter Crane and Joseph Pennell on black and white illustration. Also
many articles in mags such as The Magazine of Art, and The Art Journal, by
Crane, and also staff writers.
All this really took off after about 1850, with the peak after 1860, when
many magazines appeared, and also artists began to be credited for their
work by having their names on their pictures as well as that of the
engraver (or his initials). After about 1890, there was a collapse as wash
drawings and photographs took over from line drawings. The private presses
continued, but the volume of work and artists had gone, and with a few
exceptions, the private presses produced 'special over-designed rubbish
with lots of curly typography for collectors'.
One interesting aspect of the illustrators is the high regard given to
workers such as Pinwell and Keene who are now almost entirely forgotten.
Perhaps this was due to the influence of people such as Crane and Morris
who championed 'minor' arts such as illustration at that time. Despite the
modern art world smiling at the use of naive terms such as 'high' and 'low'
art, it seems to me that the artists of that time who we remember as the
great ones are those who did high art: i.e. oil painting. For example,
although Whistler's etchings are much talked of, what we generally see are
his oil paintings; Rossetti and Leighton and Burne Jones (who illustrated
more or less only for Morris's books) were all serious painters as well as
b/w illustrators; AFA Sandys, a prolific illustrator who was considered
great in the field, is much less familiar, because his oils are not seen as
important as those of Rossetti et al.
We have to go further back to find artists who stand with reputations
intact today on the basis of their black and white work alone. Durer and
the little masters are the perfect example. Incidentally, seeing the
originals of Durer et al's work was for me very important - though many
many of them were familiar to me from countless reproductions, the
extraordinary variety of scales of some of the most famous examples makes
one reconsider the whole concept.
One of the big things about black and white art, and most especially line
art of the sort used for illustration, is the difficulty of hiding lack of
talent with bright colours or 'smudging'. It is always interesting to see
black and white work by modern artists, because it tells us if they can
actually draw. To see sketches by, for example, Hepworth or Moore, forces
one to acknowledge the draftsmanship of the artist, in that it makes one
think (well, it makes me think!) that here is an artist who does something
strange or abstract, because they choose to do so; while with many modern
artists, where one never sees anything that looks like reality, one is left
with the impression that here is an artist who has turned to abstraction or
distortion because they cannot draw. But this is going off-topic and
perhaps should be left to stalwarts such as Mani Deli et al...
bob
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Bob Speel EMail b...@speel.demon.co.uk
"ignorant but never silent"
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