Nine recent woodcuts
Artist Statement
As art expresses the complexity of emotion perceived by the mind, I find artist’s statements highly irrelevant. With that caveat, the notion expressed by Théophile Gautier and Edgar Allen Poe, encapsulated in the phrase l’art pour l’art, is a good starting point. My art naturally is informed by an education in art history and an experience in a gallery that specialized in old master prints and drawings and antiquarian books. Having been drawn initially to the art of woodcut by exposure, through books and museums, to the works of early 20th century masters, I have been a practitioner of the medium of woodcut since I was sixteen years old. My later experience in Japan afforded me new insight into the medium. While I also love to write, I find it necessary to give visual expression to ideas and forms that do not seem well-suited to me with the written word. I often explore such forms, geometric or otherwise, in repeated works or in a series.
Peter L. Scacco began making woodcut prints when he was sixteen years old. His artwork has been featured in numerous magazines and journals. Mr. Scacco is also the author of seven books of poetry and a translation of Théophile Gautier’s The Salon of 1850-51. A native of Cleveland, OH, and a graduate of Fordham University with a degree in art history, Mr. Scacco has lived and worked in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Brussels, and cities throughout the USA. Since 1995, he has made his home in Austin, TX. Further examples of his art can be seen at www.scaccowoodcuts.com.
