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serigraphy (silkscreen, unlike pochoir has an underlying substrate of fabric)
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About Pochoir
Pochoir: Art of the Stencil Current exhibition at Fleet Library at RISD January 11 - April 8, 2011 Simply stated, pochoir
is the French word for stencil. In
the 1920’s and 30’s Art Deco era, the color application process of the stencil
was rejuvenated by the French, bringing color illustration processes for books
and prints to new glorious heights.
This interest in exploring the stencil process came in reaction to the
proliferation of machine printing and the poor quality of color reproductions
in publishing. With pochoir
printing, the hand application of layers of pigment created dazzling effects
that the camera or printing press could never replicate. Earlier stencil works, typically used
for decorative surface ornament were quite primitive, with applied color areas
outlined by the supporting cutout framework. New experimental techniques in pochoir refined the process
using multiple layers of color applications for a single print. Pochoir printing was also
easily combined with images made by lithography, woodcut, wood engraving, line
drawings, or etchings, thus turning a decorative technique into fine art. Jean Saudé was one of the foremost
artists to explore and promote pochoir techniques and his treatise, Traité d’Enluminure d’Art au Pochoir,
published in 1925 did much to further this art form.
Pochoir: Technique
With pochoir, a hand painted fashion plate, decorative or interior design, or illustration to be duplicated was carefully analyzed to determine each color layer. Often, but not always, an outline of the image was printed as a black and white lithograph and served as a base layer, especially in the design and fashion portfolios. In many interior illustrations, a line drawing or even a half-tone photograph was lithographed as the base layer. Each succeeding layer of color was then printed over the black and white litho layer. Depending on how intense the lithograph layer was, it would either be incorporated fully in the final image or be invisible and serve only as a guide to the image layout.
Separate stencils were cut, sometimes in thin sheets of copper, zinc, or aluminum, for every color component. Later stencil materials were made of celluloid or plastic and contemporary stencil materials are made of coated paper or acetate. Each successive color layer, using watercolor or gouache, was applied to the stencil with a brush called a pompon. Pigment on the brush could not be thick or runny, as paint could easily slide underneath the stencil and change the shape of the image. Therefore, it was necessary to really blot the pigment on the brush before applying it to the stencil and in the case of watercolor images, this was even more critical. Skilled printers could achieve incredibly subtle details using gradation and stippling, spattering or even simply drawing additional details with a small brush on the final layer. Sometimes as many as 100 stencils were used to recreate a single image, and the resulting print was surprisingly rich and detailed.
Books About Pochoir
The following circulating books and exhibition catalogs provide background information about pochoir printing and artists from the 1920's and 30's:
NE 2240.5 .F7 P6 1989 POCHOIR BY PAINTERS: An Exhibition of Books, Folios, Prints, and Ephemera 1918-1938, from the Collection of Charles Rahn Fry. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
NE 2240.5 .F8 S7 1982 THE STENCIL ART OF POCHOIR: An Exhibition of French Color Prints, 1920-1930 from the Collection of Charles Rahn Fry. Princeton University.
Oversize NK 2049 .A1 S35 2008 MODERNE: Fashioning the French Interior. / Sarah Schleuning. Princeton Architectural Press.
NK 8665 .F8 P74 2000 ART DECO PARIS 1900-1925: Pochoir Color Prints from the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library. Princeton University.
NK 8659 .E7313 1989 ART DECO PRINTS/ Giuliano Ercoli. Rizzoli.
NK 9502.2 .S43 A45 EXOTIC FLORAL PRINTS IN COLOR/ Eugene A. Séguy. Dover reprint (SUGGESTIONS POUR ÉTOFFES ET TAPIS), 1974.
Notable Pochoir Artists
A select list of artists known for using pochoir printing
in the 1920’s and 1930”s:
Jean Badovici
Leon Bakst
George
Barbier
Edouard
Benedictus
Georges
Braque
Henri Clouzot
Sonia
Delaunay
André Derain
Maurice
Dufrène
André
Durenceau
Serge Gladky
Fernand Léger
Edy Legrand
J. Marrast
Léon
Moussinac
Pablo Picasso
Georges
Rouault
Emile Jacques
Ruhlmann
Jean Saudé
Eugène A.
Séguy
Georges
Valmier
M. P.
Verneuil
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