The Folly of the Monks, Xylograph 94/100
Political displacement of artists from Germany began many years before World War II. Numerous intellectuals and creative artists like E. were forced into exile. Although a mature and successful printmaker in Germany, after E. arrived in the United States, he began, in 1935, to work on the WPA Federal Art Project, which provided work for unemployed artists. There, he participated in the creation of prints and murals for public spaces. Also in 1935, he began teaching woodcut printmaking and wood engraving at The New School in New York City until 1945. After the war, E. taught at Pratt Institute from 1947 to 1972.
By 1936, however, he had begun illustrating, using his characteristic wood engraving techniques in black ink. His style was that of the German Expressionist woodcutters who sought not only to convey the intense emotion that they felt when they carved their forms, but also to retain the character of the wood itself. E. had a most prodigious and celebrated career as an illustrator.
Awards
ALA NEWBERY MEDAL Honor Book (1943) for Have You Seen Tom Thumb? (Mabel Leigh Hunt, author). ALA CALDECOTT MEDAL Honor Book (1953) for Ape in a Cape: An Alphabet of Odd Animals. New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year (1982) Rainbows Are Made (Carl SANDBURG)
"Eichenberg, Fritz." Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. London: Continuum, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 10 October 2012.
Shadow of August, Color Woodcut
Frank C. Eckmair was born in 1930 and has lived most of his life in central New York. He spent his early years drawing and working at his father’s hotel in Gilbertsville, a small village in Otsego County, west of Cooperstown. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of Iowa, where he studied with Mauricio Lasansky, who is considered to be the “Father of 20th-Century American Printmaking.” After teaching public school, Eckmair served in the U.S. Air Force in Korea, Japan, and the northwestern United States. He then received a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from Ohio University. From 1963 to 1995 he was a revered teacher at Buffalo State College, where he influenced a generation of artists.
Landscape of Memory - Prints by Frank C. Eckmair NYSED.gov museum website includes information on the artist and printmaking.