Owl (plate, folio 43 verso) from A Bestiary
Joe Andoe
American, born 1955
1990
A linoleum cut printed in an illustrated book, in which Andoe pares an owl down to a bold hand-carved silhouette to evoke its watchful, nocturnal presence beside the text.
You first notice the dense black square with a circular ‘moon’ opening and the owl’s simple silhouette perched on a branch, set against wide cream margins so the image reads like a quiet emblem.
By marrying spare linocut imagery with text in an artist’s book, Andoe reconnects modern printmaking to the illustrated-bestiary tradition and the late-20th-century revival of handcrafted, intimate book arts.
Medium
Linoleum cut from an illustrated book with twenty-nine linoleum cuts (two with pochoir and two with letterpress) and seven woodcuts
Dimensions
composition: 3 1/16 × 3" (7.7 × 7.6 cm); page: 14 13/16 × 10 13/16" (37.6 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund
Accession
29.1991.18
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
