Phyllida Shelley

Phyllida Shelley is among Andrea G. Artz's mokuhanga portraits, a series in which the artist transposes photographic studies of named sitters into Japanese water-based woodblock prints. The composition presents the figure as the sole subject, framed against the unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) without architectural or landscape setting. Mokuhanga production requires multiple cherry blocks, one per colour pass, inked with rice paste and water-soluble pigment and printed by hand with a [baren](/glossary/baren) onto dampened paper; kentō registration aligns the successive impressions, while [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) allows graduated rather than flat tone across the face and clothing. The technique gives the print a matte, absorbed surface distinct from both digital photographic output and oil-based Western relief printing. The work belongs to Artz's broader interdisciplinary investigation of the human figure, which extends from her early training as a portrait photographer through her current sculptural and installation practice involving folded three-dimensional paper figures. These mokuhanga portraits function as a planar counterpart to those dimensional works, recording the sitter's presence through layered hand-printing rather than constructed paper form.