Adoration

William Zorachs Adoration from 1920, published in 1928, is a linocut on cream wove tissue that exemplifies the American sculptors approach to the print medium, in which the volumetric forms and organic rhythms of his three-dimensional work are translated into the graphic medium of the relief print with a directness and economy that reveal the structural logic underlying his sculptural compositions. The linocut, a relief printmaking technique in which the image is carved into a block of linoleum rather than wood, was adopted by Zorach and other Modernist artists in the early 20th century as a more accessible alternative to the woodcut, and the soft, even surface of the linoleum allows for the broad, sweeping cuts that characterize Zorachs print style. The subject of the Adoration, a religious theme that depicts figures in an attitude of worship or reverence, provided Zorach with a composition that connects his Modernist visual language to the devotional tradition of Western religious art, creating an image that is simultaneously a Modernist composition and a religious subject. The year 1920 for the creation and 1928 for the publication places this linocut in the period when Zorach was transitioning from painting to sculpture, and the print medium provided a bridge between the two-dimensional practice he was leaving and the three-dimensional practice he was developing. The cream wove tissue paper, which provides a smooth, absorbent ground for the ink, gives the print the tonal warmth and surface quality of a drawing rather than a reproduction.

Zorach's prints are significant documents for understanding the development of his style and the relationship between his two-dimensional and three-dimensional practice, and Adoration demonstrates the combination of Modernist visual language and devotional subject matter that characterizes his graphic work. His prints influenced the development of American Modernist printmaking.

A linocut by Zorach from 1920 published in 1928 on cream wove tissue depicting the Adoration, translating the volumetric forms of his sculptural practice into the graphic relief print medium with broad sweeping cuts that bridge his transition from painting to direct carving.