Covered Bridge

Artist Louis Novak (American, born in Czechoslovakia, 1904–1983)

Date1957

Mediumlinocut on cream Japan paper

Dimensionsimage: 20.4 x 27 cm (8 1/16 x 10 5/8 in.)
sheet: 26.4 x 32.6 cm (10 3/8 x 12 13/16 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Markingsin ink, above and below image: c (circled) Louis Novak

Credit LineGift of William Greenbaum

Terms

Object number1997.92

Label TextBorn in Czechoslovakia, Louis Novak (1904-1983) was trained at the Massachusetts School of Art in Boston and became best known for his woodcuts of featuring bucolic scenes of New England. Like fellow artists John Taylor Arms and Gustave Baumann—both of whom are represented in this exhibition—Novak was a member of the Prairie Print Makers, a populist art movement that originated in Kansas in 1929. Much like a woodcut, linoleum cuts—linocuts for short—are a relief technique. As such, the flat areas on the surface (the areas that are not cutaway) appear as the inked portions on the print. An appealing feature of the linocut is the pliability of linoleum making it much easer to carve into than a wood block. As with other relief and intaglio prints, the image on the paper is a mirror image of what is represented on the carved linoleum sheet. A new linoleum sheet is fashioned for each color. The first three proofs show a progression of only three linoleum sheets. However, the final work seen at the far-right-end required eight separate carved sheets. ProvenanceWilliam Greenbaum Fine Prints, Gloucester, MA

On View

Not on view