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“Nude” is a relief print, a woodcut by American printmaker Milton Clark Avery (1885-1965), done in 1953. The irregular image measures 3-5/8 x 10-3/4″. It is pencil signed, dated, and annotated “artists proof” (edition of 25 in this color) by the artist beneath the lower image. It was hand-printed by the artist on a sheet of delicate white wove Japanese paper that measures 9-1/4 x 16-1/8″. References for this image include Lunn 99 and AAA 65-69.
The woodblock for “Nude” was originally cut in 1953. It was printed in campaigns of 20 in black, 20 in green, 20 in blue and black, and 25 in dark gray, like this impression – all the colors varying from impression to impression. The early editions are pencil signed on the right margin and editioned on the left. In 1960 the block was printed again in blue in an edition of 500, published by the Art in America Society.
Essayist Alan Fern comments in Harry Lunn’s raisonné of Avery’s prints: “The woodcuts began in 1952. In contrast to the drypoints, which are all conceived in black lines on white, the woodcuts are all white on black – the result of the most direct and natural method of cutting a design on a block…For the next few years, Avery continued to cut woodblocks, taking them up again whenever prints from them were wanted…”
About Avery’s printing techniques Fern notes: “Some of his woodblock prints are inked almost as monotypes, by painting on the block and transferring both the painted and the cut image to the paper during printing…All of the woodblocks were printed by rubbing, not in a press, and this enabled the artist to vary the background tone of each impression as he printed.”
Avery quit making prints in the late 1950s because of declining health – in the years between 1952 and 55 he created 21 blocks.
