Tools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude Flight

Tools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude Flight

Claude Flight

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Flight wrote two manuals and numerous articles on the linocut technique and why linocut was an ideal technique with which to create dynamic images of contemporary life. Linoleum—machine-made, inexpensive, new to fine art, and readily available—exemplified Flight’s belief in democratizing art production. Although tools were sold for linocutting, amateur artists of all ages could make linocuts in their homes, with materials at hand (such as a knife or an umbrella rib, and a sheet of soft linoleum) and without the expertise and expense of professional printers.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude FlightTools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude FlightTools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude FlightTools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude FlightTools accompanying The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing by Claude Flight

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.