Alyssa Dumire, Director of Education
When accessioning a recently-acquired batch of prints, FWMoA Registrar Lauren Wolfer shared a new (to me) word she kept encountering: gauffrage. I turned to the dictionary for help but was led on a bit of a goose chase; Merriam-Webster defines gauffrage as, “ornamentation with goffering.” But what is goffering? It can be a costuming term referencing a crimped or plaited edge, or another word for embossing, today’s focus. Gauffrage, perhaps predictably, derives from the French gaufrer, which means “to emboss.”
As a printmaking technique, gauffrage is sometimes known as “blind embossing” or, in Japanese, karazuri, meaning “empty” or “done without ink.” The Japanese term is particularly apt, as it was popular with late-19th century Ukiyo-e printers. Like more familiar woodblock prints, these artists used a relief-carved block, but simply left it uninked. Damp paper was laid on top, then firm pressure applied with a baren, forcing the paper to take the shape of the block. The resulting raised and recessed areas of paper created texture, sometimes mimicking that of woven fabric, other times architectural features like friezes or screens. Left uninked like the Lipofsky work, above, gauffrage relies solely on light and shadow to create an image, similar to a relief sculpture. Combined with a printed image, it turns the illusion of depth created by color and value into a work with actual dimension, heightening the effect.
Contemporary artists, some inspired by Japanese woodblocks, combine gauffrage with a variety of other processes, not limited to wood relief. As explained in our previous post on embossing, it sometimes uses two molds, know as “die”, to shape the paper into the desired relief. Other times it is used in conjunction with other printmaking methods. Letterio Calapai, whose work Lauren was accessioning when she encountered the term, worked as Stanley William Hayter’s assistant at Atelier 17. The workshop emphasized experimentation with intaglio processes, and Hayter encouraged artists to work until they “destroyed” their etching plate. While some slight embossing on Calapai’s prints appears to be simply the result of a deeply bitten etching plate, other times the gauffrage intentionally highlights an area of the composition. Frolic, above, was created well after his time working under Hayter, but it’s clear that the spirit of experimentation persisted in his use of intaglio techniques. The gauffrage heightens the contrast between the light figures and the darker blue and black background.
Much of Ann Hamilton’s work explores communication and touch, often incorporating language and text. In the FWMoA collection, Wreathe, above, was created by using the same embossing plate of the artist’s handwritten text twice, the second time rotated 180 degrees. As a result, the text is illegible, leaving the viewer to focus only on the tactile quality of the gauffrage.
On view now, Neal Ambrose-Smith’s Event Horizon Has No Agenda also employs gauffrage to add textured text. The entire composition is overlaid with short phrases, some passages more legible than others (the title of the work, along the lower edge, is most clear). Gauffrage, especially when enhancing a printed image, is a technique that rewards close looking, as it is not always noted on a work label.
Event Horizon Has No Agenda is on display in the Animals in Art exhibit, on view at FWMoA through November 30th. Stop by and see if you can decipher the rest!