CategoriesMedium and Techniques
Paper Cut-Outs
Pictures and patterns made by cutting paper with scissors or blade, from folk traditions and silhouettes to large modern compositions.
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About
Paper cutting is one of the most widespread folk arts. In China, jianzhi, often red paper cut into flowers, animals and auspicious characters for festivals and weddings, has been practised for well over a thousand years. Polish wycinanki, Jewish papercuts and Swiss and German Scherenschnitte developed motifs of their own. In 18th- and 19th-century Europe and America, silhouette cutters made quick profile portraits in black paper, and Hans Christian Andersen cut fanciful figures while telling stories.
Modern artists gave the technique monumental scale. After major surgery in 1941 left him largely unable to stand at an easel, Henri Matisse cut shapes from sheets painted with gouache and had them pinned into compositions such as The Snail (1953). Kara Walker revived the silhouette at room size, and Wu Jian'an draws on Chinese papercut traditions in layered works. The edge carries the drawing: crisp or ragged, every cut is a line.
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