Woodcuts

1982    Wer kann die Wahrheit nackend sehn?  Five fabulists.  Holzstiche von Harald Metzkes.  Slipcase with five folded pages.  Leipzig: Verlag Karl Quarch.  €33.88 from Leipziger Antiquariat, Oct., '21.

This fascinating work is a set of five folded pages -- each with four folds about 4" by 8¼' -- brought together in a slipcase that offers a title on one side and a T of C on the other.  For safety's sake, I am listing this work both as a book and as a set of printed woodcuts.  The five fabulists are Gotthold Ehraim Lessing.  Five fascinating fable texts are transformed into strong woodcuts, 3½" by up to 4½".  It seems to me that the texts all have something to do with reverencing art.  I am delighted to have come across this unusual effort! 

 

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: "Die Furien" 

Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer: "Die beraubte Fabel"

Christian Fuerchtegott Gellert: "Der Leichtsinn" 

Ivan Krylow: "Der Parnass" 

Daniel Schiebeler: "Pyreneus und die Musen"

 

1992  "The Mule Who Boasted of the Family Tree."  Woodcut by David Schorr.  Signed “9/20 for Father G. Carlson from Liz Dulaney   D. Schorr 1992.”  Gift of Liz Dulaney, 1992.

This image has a history.  Liz Dulaney worked at the University of Illinois Press.  She collected fable editions.  Our contact brought up the possibility of an offer: I could get her some of my extra fable books.  She knew that David Schorr, illustrator of “The Fabulists French: Verse Fables of Nine Centuries” for their press, had promised them an original set of the illustrations for the book.  She would provide me the print of my choice if I made the trade.  Wonderful!  I believe we waited a year before the artist provided what he had promised.  I chose this piece and it was in our Joslyn Exhibit, “I See That Fable Differently.”