William M. Ivins:

24) Prints and Visual Communication.

Chicago 1953

Ivins’ reflections on the printing techniques of the 19th century in chapter five of this pioneering examination of print culture owe much to his close study of the conflict between Linton and the photoxylography of the New School. Although Ivins illustrates his thesis of a “broken tyranny” of standardized linear structures in the course of the 19th century with an enlarged detail of an engraving by Linton as an example of a graphic free-style, he doesn’t mention him or any other exponent of the late artistic xylography in the text. The omission of the refined state of xylographic culture proves evidence of the modernist paradigm shift that had taken place in the last decade and that finally led to the complete extinction of the highly complex medium of wood engraving from art historical remembrance. Moreover, someone like Linton with his ominous political background and his ambiguous imagery wasn’t bearable anymore as an artistic example in the times of the Cold War.

T. Bolton - W.J. Linton