"Wild Woodcuts" by Bill Evaul

Wild Woodcuts by Bill Evaul, July 14-July 27, Reception Friday July 14, 7-9 PM

From Friday July 14 through Thursday July 27, Little Gorgeous Things will present an exhibition of white-line woodcuts of Cape Cod and New York City by Truro artist William Evaul. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, July 14 from 7-9 PM.

A Cape artist since 1970, William Evaul produces oil paintings and white-line woodcuts, as well as works on paper, drawings, watercolors, and monotypes and monoprints. He employs a vibrant color palette and a kind of figurative expressionism to create a wide variety of images including musicians, New York skylines, nudes, wine bottle still lifes, and a lively fauvist/cubist series called "Dancing Houses." As an educator, curator, and art consultant in the field of 20th Century art, Evaul conducts art workshops in white-line woodcut printmaking and slide lectures on Provincetown art history; he also organizes exhibitions and produces certified appraisals and can advise on collection management.

William Evaul studied painting and printmaking at Syracuse University School of Art, and Pratt Institute (BFA) with graduate seminars at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1981). He came to Provincetown in 1970 as a painting Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center.

While living in New York, Evaul further developed his printmaking skills by working at Solo Press -- contract printing for artists -- and teaching lithography at Pratt Graphics Center. As a contributing writer for Print Review and other magazines, he produced reviews and scholarly articles including an important historical research paper entitled The Provincetown Printers: Genesis of a Unique Woodcut Tradition which helped in the revival of the obscure and nearly lost technique of single-block "white-line" printmaking.

Starting in the late 70's, Evaul spent more than ten years dividing his time in the studio with a career in the arts administration field as museum/gallery director-curator before returning to the studio full-time. As a result, Evaul embarked on a continuing series of alternative space exhibitions of his paintings and prints at such places as Thos. Moser Cabinet Maker Showrooms, Portland, ME; Philadelphia, PA, and Alexandria, VA; and in New York City at Bergdorf-Goodman, 5th Ave & 57th St., SMED International Show rooms, SoHo, and the studios of SMA RealTime Video in SoHo, New York City.

Evaul's work has been exhibited or collected by numerous museums including The Zimmerli Museum of Art at Rutgers University, The Georgia Museum of Art, The Sunrise Art Museum, The Kresge Art Museum, The Provincetown Art Association and Museum, The Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum, The Cape Museum of Fine Art and others.

Alongside his painting, Evaul has produced over 100 woodblock images and over 1,000 prints. He pushes the limits of the medium by utilizing multiple layering of color and expanding the images in size and complexity. Seeking out the finest of hand-made Japanese papers and other water-leaf papers, he produces small, medium and large scale work, the largest of which measure 3' x 6'. A print from his Muse-Musicians series, The Joint is Jumpin' was included in the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibition sponsored show, Provincetown and the Art of Printmaking.

In 1991, Madeline Fortunoff Fine Prints, Locust Valley, NY exhibited William Evaul at the International Fine Print Dealers Association Print Fair at the Park Avenue Armory, New York City, and has continued to exhibit his work in the 11 subsequent annual exhibitions. He has been represented by the Aaron Galleries of Chicago, IL since 1994 who have included him in numerous exhibitions around the country. Evaul has exhibited widely in Provincetown and the Outer Cape.

As an educator, William Evaul periodically presents lectures and workshops at a variety of institutions such as: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; The Sunrise Art Museum, Charleston, WV, Syracuse University School of Art, Syracuse, NY; The Zimmerli Art Museum and others, as well as numerous local arts and historical institutions on Cape Cod, MA.

In 1997 Evaul and his wife purchased the Moorlands Inn, North Truro, MA and created "An Artistic Bed & Breakfast" where art, music and culture are nurtured. The inn features Evaul's artwork as well as the Evaul's private collection. Current projects involve landscaping in the manner of "Giverny" including sculpture gardens, tea gardens, rose gardens, kitchen and herb gardens and the installation of a world class croquet court.

Recent Exhibitions

February - March, 2005: North American Print Biennial, 808 Gallery, Boston University. February - March, 2004: Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Gladys Wynn Dorfman Memorial Exhibition of Printmakers of Cape Cod. April 2004 - WOMR Community Radio Houswarming Auction: Evaul's image of the Schoolhouse Center was used as the cover for the commemorative catalogue and also for a poster promoting the event.

The Provincetown White-line Woodcut

The white-line woodcut originated in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the summer and winter of 1915-1916 by a group of six artists who had settled here after fleeing World War I in Europe. Influenced by Japanese printmaking, the original artists included Bror Nordfelt, Ada Gilmore, Edna Boies Hopkins, and Blanche Lazzell. The white-line technique, known as the "Provincetown Print," differed from traditional Japanese woodcuts in enabling the artist to use one block of soft pine wood to produce the variety of colors in the print, rather than employing the more laborious and traditional method of using a different block for each color. A "v" groove is cut into the wood to separate the different watercolors; this groove is not inked, producing the signature "white line" that separates the fields of color in the print.