Fletcher Martin (USA 1904–1979)

Fletcher Martin was an unlikely artist who reached staggering success without very much training.  It is perhaps testament to his father's life in newspapers and printing that he was able to see things in such variety, yet only using black and white.  The woodcuts I have featured here represent activity mostly undertaken in the 20's and 30's, and exclusively black and white.  His works are beautifully done, and cry out to be published.  His first exhibit, a show of woodcuts in 1933 at the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles, was followed in 1934 by a one man show at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego. 

By the time the Great Depression ended, he was already a star and although there was widespread ignorance of the technique and the process, his works awakened a very appreciative Californian audience.  Despite the fact that they are small in size and simply black and white, they are great in spirit and are completely devoid of the pretty and decorative.  A quick glance of the works that I have posted here today to give a representation of his work, show that Fletcher, loved the simple and graphic.  Fashions in art are not rapid in their course, but their sway is evident.  When looking at Martin, a number of British, French and Australian artists immediately spring to mind.  This is not because of any artistic cribbing, rather groups of artists across the world riding the wave of a very time-specific aesthetic and technical style.

The time that Martin was working in woodcuts was the time when woodcuts occupied the genius of the best artists, and etchings and lithographs had fallen out of favour.  At one time the soft stippled effect of mezzotints were popular, and Whistler had worked hard around the time Fletcher was born, to revive it.  Fletcher's work makes the instant appeal of the woodcut, very obvious.  The black and white is immediately arresting and there is sharp contrast that isn't easy to substitue with other techniques.  These are not the works of the old stately wood-engravers whose works were used to fill the pages of papers and magazines, these were something different.

By thickening or thinning the lines and changing the light and dark portions, we end up with precision and solidity.  There was no consideration for Martin in how to produce subtle gradations in tone which give the character of a landscape.  When you are in the domain of the black and white, everything is clear and lines need to be excellent.  Fletcher went on to teach and train and was a star of the print by the time he passed away.  I am not sure he is really remembered, and I personally do not like his paintings... but as a star of the print, he was one of the best talents working in the field in the first half of the 20th Century.