The 1930s in Prints: A Gift to Kansas City from The Woodcut Society

A growing number of artists turned to carving blocks of wood or linoleum to create prints during the 1930s. An affordable medium, relief printmaking was appealing as the Great Depression took an economic and emotional toll globally. Building on the increased prominence of woodcuts, Kansas City resident Alfred Fowler formed The Woodcut Society in 1932. Works produced by the Society’s international group of artists represented social, political, and formal concerns of the decade.

This exhibition features 33 woodcuts, wood engravings, and linocuts given to the Nelson-Atkins by the Society during the 1930s. Some were commissioned by the Society for subscribers, while others were organized into annual traveling exhibitions that visited museums and galleries from coast to coast.