Word: woode
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Autumn after autumn, the dream has persisted, in alleys and wood lots, mansions and tenements: every American could rise by education. Ben Franklin nourished it with self-improvement primers. Jefferson gave it philosophical reasons. An unlettered people scrambled for skill and knowledge. "Your government will never be able to restrain a distressed and discontented majority,'' warned Britain's Lord Macaulay. "This opinion," retorted President-to-be James Garfield. "leaves out the great counterbalancing force of universal education/' The focus of a European town remained the cathedral; the focus of an American town became the high school...
...Heel of a Shoe. The woodprints that flourished in 17th-19th century Japan were called Ukiyo-e, meaning "Picture of the Passing World." They were just that: pictures of solemn actors, sprightly geishas, idyllic landscapes. Japan's modern wood-printers turned to semiabstract compositions, employ many techniques known to their forerunners; e.g., they often wet their paper to obtain a certain texture, but also experiment with leaves, string, the heel of a shoe to get special effects with an ingenuity Western printmakers have not displayed...
...breaking so sharply with the traditional print, Japan's new wood-block artists have forfeited their traditional popularity at home. They had to await the coming of the American occupation to win acceptance, even now remain more popular abroad than at home. Putting a sampling of Japan's best on display, Manhattan's small Weyhe Gallery in two months sold 75 prints, 25 of them to museums and schools, last week was awaiting a fresh supply from Japan to restock its walls...
...Promise of Spring. Another in the top flight is tall, slender Hideo Hagiwara, 46, who worked as an army coolie during the war, began making wood blocks in 1953 when, hospitalized with TB, he was forbidden to paint in oils because they were too messy. Noted for soft tones, gentle composition, he describes his Snow: "It is melting snow with the promise of spring, and growing hope...
...talk very well. They may, in fact, talk a bit too well; after a time the author's fondness for epigrams becomes almost as irritating as Aldous Huxley's old weakness for brandishing his scientific erudition. "The one thing wisdom does foolishly," Stacton chisels in the enduring wood pulp, "is to overlook the power of folly." And "though women, like cats, enjoy boredom and derive great strength from...