Interpretive Reprints

Working with 19th century woodcuts and steel engravings for sixteen years, Walton Mendelson has a deep love and respect for the artists and artisans of that time.

(PRWEB) June 26, 2005 -- Working with 19th century woodcuts and steel engravings for sixteen years, Walton Mendelson has a deep love and respect for the artists and artisans of that time. Using digital scanning and photo editing software-he has made a point of not cutting up old books-for his collage work. Now he brings the same skills to reprinting master works from 135 years ago.

Every year sees tens of thousands of old books destroyed or lost. Aside from wear and tear, books with artwork are often plated-steel engravings are cut out to be sold separately-and the remainder of the books, often filled with stunning woodcuts are thrown away. Even if art books are kept whole on someones shelves, the work of those masters is out of sight.

Interpretive Reprints TM from One-Off Press presents a growing number of examples of some of the best work of that period. There is a movement to preserve our older books on CD or DVD. This is truly commendable given the losses, and inaccessibility of many rare books. But if art in a book is virtually out of sight, the CD is even less accessible to casually browse through on a monitor. The woodcuts and steel engravings come from The Aldine, The Art Journal, Picturesque America, Picturesque Europe, Picturesque Palestine, Sinai & Egypt, The Magazine of Art, Scientific American, etc., and represent artists like Thomas Moran, J. M. Turner, Albert Bierstadt, J. O. Davidson.

Reprinting these images presents several problems. The ink and paper have oxidized over the last one hundred plus years. Some of the images have foxing, water stains, tears, or other signs of ware. Was the paper bright white? Was the ink pure black? As remarkable as the engravings and woodcuts are in translating paintings, photographs, or drawings, these images were limited in the sense that a fine art print might have been manipulated by selective and multiple inkings, these were printed in one pass, offering no manipulation by the artists involved. If the artists had choices, what might they have done?

After years of reprinting this material in collage form, using non-silver and silver photographic papers, Illfochrome (color) papers, toners, extensive reducing and spotting techniques, Mendelson brings digital image editing technologies to focus on these reprints. The images are enlarged, between 120% - 180% depending on the quality and size of the original, squared, and restored and retouched if there is physical damage. The paper tone outside the image area is painted out, however the color of the aged paper is usually retained. Then the image is worked to bring out its potentials, based on the image itself and the style of the artist from other drawings, paintings, and engravings. Through the use of masks and layers, curves and levels, hues and saturation, layer blending, dodging and burning, and selective sharpening, the image is interpreted.

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