REDUCTION WOODBLOCK PRINTING FROM YUNNAN
Reduction or ‘waste-block’ printing is a translation from the Chinese term, jueban 绝版 . Yunnan is one of the best known areas for the use and development of this technique. The artist must commit to a finite amount of prints - usually 20 for Chen Li - from the very first time the very first colour is applied to the woodblock. The waste-block technique builds up the image through a process of repeated cutting and printing of the same block, printing one colour over another after each cutting. Only opaque oil-based inks are suitable for this method. 1 The rich, oil-based inks give the prints a unique texture, similar to an oil painting.
The woodblock is destroyed at the end of the process, so only a single small edition can ever be made.
The process lends a sense of urgency, commitment and entirety to each work, as there is simply no going back.
1. Farrer, Anne, ed., Chinese Printmaking Today: Woodblock Printing in China 1980-2000 (London: British Library, 2003), p. 119. Dr. Anne Farrer is an author, curator, and historian of Chinese painting, prints, and graphic art. We are deeply grateful to Dr. Farrer for presenting a talk, Texture, Design and Colour: the Reduction Print in Modern China on the occasion of the exhibition “Reflections in a Blue Lake: The Woodblock Prints of Chen Li”.
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