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As part of my project to design and print broadsides this year, I’ve been experimenting with different printing techniques. Right now I’m finishing off a broadside that mixes pochoir (applying color using a stencil and brush) and letterpress. Pochoir has been around since the Renaissance both in Europe and in Japan. The Japanese used the technique to color kimono fabric. Pochoir was really popular in books on interior design and fashion in the early 20th century (like the picture to the left from the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition Vibrant Visions). There’s another online exhibition from the University of Cincinnati called Art of Pochoir with more examples. |
One of the most famous artists’ books is Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jeanne de France, with a poem by Blaise Cendrars and pochoir illustration by Sonia Delaunay from 1913. More recently, some graffiti and street artists who use stencils refer to their art as pochoir. There’s a group of photos on flickr tagged pochoir.For my broadside project and my first attempt at stenciling, I decided that the Delaunay or graffiti artist approach (loose registration, neatness might not count) would be a better idea than the tight registration of the fashion plates. I’ll have some pictures of the finished broadside up later this week.
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