Linocut

Linocut is a relief printing technique, akin to woodcut, but using linoleum as the surface into which the design is cut and from which it is then printed. The artist removes the areas that are to remain white, while the raised parts that are retained are inked and pressed against the paper. The softness of linoleum, which cuts equally easily in all directions, allows for free, energetic lines and large areas of colour, making the technique accessible and expressive. Linocut emerged in the early twentieth century; its artistic potential was revealed by the German Expressionists, and later by Henri Matisse and especially Pablo Picasso, who demonstrated the reductive method of printing multiple colours from a single block. Because of its simplicity and democratic character, the technique was widely used in posters, book graphics, and teaching. In twentieth-century Ukrainian art, linocut became an important means of easel and book graphics, notably in the work of masters who developed the national graphic school.