Winter 2017
:
Volume
32
, Number
2
Amy Hughes is the Andrew W. Mellon fellow in paper conservation at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, where she is currently researching the variety of papers used for printmaking by Jasper Johns. Hughes' prior conservation experience includes fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Freer and Sackler Galleries. She received her BA in literature from New College of Florida, and a MA in art history with an advanced certificate in conservation from NYU's Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center. Max Weber (1881–1961), a Jewish-American artist active in the first half of the twentieth century, is one of the artists responsible for introducing European Modernism to America, bringing with it a strong influence from African and Japanese art. The woodcut described in this article is on an exquisite variety of Japanese paper known as momigami, or "kneaded paper." Momigami is a kozo-fiber paper often coated with pigments on one side. This pigmented coating is traditionally bound with konnyaku plant mucilage. In the case of the Weber print, the colorants are combined with mica flakes, which impart a lively shimmer to the surface. After applying the coating, the momigami maker will knead the sheet by hand to create a lacy network of fine creases. This process dislodges the pigmented coating, resulting in losses along the high points of the creases. This pattern of loss is intrinsic to the character of momigami.
