The Tradition and Influence of the German Woodcut

5 October–12 December 1993

In 1991, the Smart Museum was fortunate to welcome into its collection a gift from the collection of Louis E. Asher: The W.L. Schreiber Woodcuts from Books of the Fifteenth Century, a portfolio published by Weiss and Co. Antiquariat, Munich in 1929. Comprised of 55 woodcut pages from books of the 1400s, the portfolio traces the evolution of the earliest block books, or those made from woodcuts of both text and image. These original pages, culled from the printing presses of Germany, Switzerland, Bohemia, the Netherlands, and Italy, were organized by W.L. Schreiber into 100 portfolios; the Smart Museum’s copy is designated as number 48. Not only an important historical document of printing technology and style, the portfolio is also important in that it points to the popularity of woodcutting in 1920s Germany. In addition to its adoption by Expressionist artists, the woodcut found favor among collectors and print enthusiasts. During the 1920s numerous academic and popular publications alike were devoted exclusively to the woodcut, among them: Der Holzschnitt, von seinen Anfängen im XV. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (The Woodcut, from its Beginnings in the 1500s to the Present Time) by Curt Glaser (1920) and Das Holzschnittbuch (The Woodcut Book) by Paul Westheim (1921). The print exhibition was displayed in concurrence with the exhibition Serials for a Private Sphere: the German Print Portfolio 1890-1930. 

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