Two Fishing Boats

Anders Gustave Aldrin

Aldrin printed each impression of his California WPA woodcuts in different color combinations, much like Dow had done. Each impression is unique, hence the "monoprint" designation.

As with many of Aldrin's color woodcuts, this proof, or monoprint, is from an unnumbered variant edition. This appears to be early in the edition, as it lacks the horizon and bridge blocks seen in other impressions (see VA104, "Fishing Boats", for another variant); it is also unsigned, not unusual for Aldrin's early-run impressions. However, this does not lessen the quality of the composition, whose colors are strong and vivid and capture the serene mood of fishing boats at anchor on a calm bay.

Many of Aldrin's color woodcuts are listed by the Newark Museum as having been done in the W.P.A. and allocated to the museum during the project, though Aldrin supposedly denied this. We have used Newark's allocation number for reference.

Painter, printmaker, and sculptor, Aldrin was born in Värmland, Sweden. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1911, settling in Minnesota. By 1923 he had relocated in Southern California and began his studies at the Otis Art Institute where he received the Huntington Assistance Award and a full scholarship to the Santa Barbara School of Art. He learned the techniques of the Japanese color woodcut from Frank Morley Fletcher.

In 1928, he studied for six months at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco before settling permanently in Los Angeles. That same year Aldrin made his first color woodcut, possibly through the WPA, and continued to experiment with the medium until 1937.