signed, titled, dated and editioned in pencil
Provenance: West End Gallery, Edmonton AB (label verso)
This work was created to commemorate the opening of the “David Blackwood Retrospective Exhibition 1980-1990” presented by Erindale College (University of Toronto). The exhibition was hosted in the new Blackwood Gallery, named in honour of the artist, who was the College’s first artist-in-residence and curator (1969-1974). This was the first exhibition to include all of the artist’s major works from the prior decade.
For this project, David Blackwood consciously decided to explore a printmaking medium that was novel for him, rather than create an etching. He had long admired the woodcut process, yet his only experience with it was as a student and teaching assistant at the Ontario College of Art.
The creation of this print spanned 10 months. Colour choice and variation was unique to each printing, with the artist employing the traditional Japanese technique of hand rubbing (vs. use of a press). Of the one hundred unique impressions created, fifty copies were sold to benefit the Gallery and the remaining were retained by the artist.
