Critical Bibliography

Self-reflections: essays by Munakata contained a minor amount of factual information on the meanings of several words used to describe wood block printing. I found this provided just the right amount to draw the reader into the piece as well as providing a quick informative language lesson which helped the reader understand the rest of the essay, whilst not being too over whelming to comprehend. Mostly the rest of the piece is based on Munakatas own personal opinions as a woodblock printer, which came across as very spiritual and religious. Whilst arguing the difference in printing and painting Munakata as a printer has an insider’s approach to his writing therefore the reader receives less information and opinions about painting resulting in having an unbalanced opinion of their own.

As Munakata writes about the process of printing he uses vivid descriptive and religious words giving a very spiritual feeling to his writing, from this I gather that a lot of his opinions may be based on his cultural upbringing which would explain the passion behind his words. At a quick glance this piece of writing may come across as biased because the writer is a printer himself when in reality it is merely his faith and beliefs coming through. The piece reads quite effortlessly until the writer inserts a small paragraph about a personal ritual which interrupts the fluidity that leads the reader off track and changes the mood of the essay quite abruptly. In the beginning Munakata talks so passionately and devotedly about printing and the ritualistic process behind it, then the tone of writing changes to a very plain more descriptive style as he summarises the points he has made in the beginning. As much as I feel the writer has written a non-spiritual summary for the benefit of the reader, the abrupt change in the tone which was used throughout the essay leads the reader to a confusing and almost anti climatic end after such vibrant writing at the beginning. The imagery used in the essay was merely placed at the end to show the artist at work and played no real use to the reader.

Overall this piece was an easy pleasant read but which included little beneficial factual information about woodblock printing. It presented an interesting view of ritualistic process in comparison to painting which challenges the reader and evokes thoughts of their own processes. In relation to my own essay this piece of writing has helped me form a better understanding that the process of block printing, however lengthy, may lead to something with much more depth than that of a direct one step method of expressing art. Although it is not directly linked to textiles I feel the idea behind the argument is relatable to that of screen and digital print.

Dissimilar to my first source, ‘self-reflections’ where the writer discussed printing in comparison to painting, the second source of writing deals with block printing within the textile industry.