Auricaria

Anders Gustave Aldrin

A variant impression from an unstated edition, Aldrin rarely printed the same color variant twice. Additionally, some of the blocks for this print appear to have been used for "California Coastline", including the tree block--though, interestingly, "auricaria" refers to a genus of conifer native to regions throughout the southern hemisphere.

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

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 there is little other evidence of 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 193