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# Gordon Mortensen: The Westerner Who Mastered the Reduction Woodcut
- URL: https://www.jpnstudio.com/gordon-mortensen-reduction-woodcut/
- Published: 2026-09-30T12:54:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-30T12:58:25.000Z
- Description: Born on the plains of North Dakota in 1938, Gordon Mortensen carved a single block of wood again and again to create luminous landscapes in up to 64 colors. Meet the Westerner who mastered the woodblock.
- Author: Bjorn Brussee
- Tags: Art, #Import 2026-09-30 14:36

Gordon Mortensen's landscapes look like watercolors. Soft skies melt into distant hills, water glows with reflected light and autumn woods seem to shimmer. Look closer, though, and you will find the grain of wood beneath the color. Every one of these images was carved and printed by hand from a single block of wood that was slowly destroyed in the process.

Born in 1938 on the plains of North Dakota, Mortensen started out as a portrait painter. Then he discovered the reduction woodcut, one of the most unforgiving techniques in printmaking, and never looked back. In this article we explore his life, his method, his use of Japanese mulberry paper and why his work proves that the language of the woodblock has no borders.

## Gordon Mortensen at a Glance

- **Full name:** Gordon Louis Mortensen
- **Born:** April 27, 1938, near Arnegard, North Dakota, USA
- **Education:** BFA with honors, Minneapolis School of Art (1964); graduate studies at the University of Minnesota (1969 to 1972)
- **Medium:** Reduction woodcut, a color woodcut printed from one single block
- **Subjects:** Landscapes of the Upper Midwest and, later, California
- **Paper:** Handmade Japanese mulberry paper
- **Most ambitious prints:** Up to 64 colors and 45 press runs
- **Museum collections:** Smithsonian American Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art and many more

## From the Plains of North Dakota to the Woodblock

Mortensen was born on April 27, 1938, near Arnegard, a small town in western North Dakota. The wide horizons, big skies and changing seasons of the Upper Midwest would later become the subjects of his earliest prints.

He trained as a painter at the Minneapolis School of Art, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and graduated with a BFA with honors in 1964\. From 1969 to 1972 he continued his studies at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

At first, Mortensen worked as a portrait painter. Painting, however, did not give him the creative freedom he was looking for. He found that freedom in the reduction woodcut and almost entirely abandoned painting to devote himself to it. At the time, he was one of only a few artists in the United States working seriously in this method.

While building his printmaking practice, he taught at the Saint Paul Art Museum, the Rochester Art Center and the Minnetonka Art Center in Wayzata, Minnesota. His prints first circulated through exhibitions in the Midwest. His national breakthrough came in 1976, when his work was shown in the Brooklyn Museum's National Print Exhibition. In 1977 his work appeared with the Boston Printmakers, and he was later commissioned to create membership prints for the Albany Print Club and the Print Club of Rochester in New York. Magazines such as American Artist and Horizons interviewed him about his process, and galleries came to describe him as one of the leading reduction woodcut artists in the United States.

## What Is a Reduction Woodcut?

Most color woodcuts, including the classic Japanese prints of the Edo period, use a separate block for each color. One block prints the outlines, another the blue of the sky, another the green of the hills. Every block survives the process, which means the image can be printed again later.

A reduction woodcut works the other way around. Everything comes from one block. In Mortensen's own words, only one woodblock is used and the process continues until the print is finished.

This is how his process worked, step by step:

1. **Plan the colors.** Mortensen began with watercolor studies to understand how his colors would interact. The finished print would closely mirror this painting.
2. **Draw on the block.** He drew the composition in India ink on a block of basswood.
3. **Carve and print the first color.** He cut away the areas that should remain the color of the paper, inked the block with the first color and printed it on every sheet of the edition.
4. **Carve again.** Next he cut away every area that should keep that first color, then printed the second color on top of it, again on every sheet.
5. **Repeat until almost nothing is left.** Color after color, the block was carved down further. By the final press run, only small islands of raised wood remained to print the last and deepest accents.

### Why There Are No Second Chances

Printmakers sometimes call the reduction woodcut a "suicide print," and it is easy to see why. Once an area of the block has been carved away, it is gone forever. A wrong cut cannot be repaired, and because every sheet in the edition has already received the earlier colors, a single mistake can ruin the entire edition.

The method also demands perfect registration. Every sheet has to line up exactly with the block for each new color, press run after press run. The slightest shift and the image blurs.

It also means the edition size has to be decided at the very beginning. When the last color is printed, the block has been carved down so far that it can never be used again. A Mortensen print can never be reprinted. The edition that came off the press is all that will ever exist.

Mortensen did not invent the reduction method. Pablo Picasso famously used a similar approach for his colorful linocuts of the late 1950s and 1960s. What set Mortensen apart was the scale and complexity he achieved in wood.

## 64 Colors and 45 Press Runs: The Numbers Behind a Mortensen Print

His early prints were smaller and used fewer colors, focusing on texture and the subtle effects of light. Over time his ambitions grew. Many of his later works used between 23 and 47 different inks, required 20 to 35 passes through the press and measured more than 40 inches (about 100 cm) on the longest side. An edition like this took him about a month.

His most ambitious prints went even further, with **up to 64 colors and 45 press runs**, all on handmade Japanese mulberry paper. A single edition could take as long as **three months**.

To put that in perspective, his 1978 print *Meadowland*, now in the RISD Museum in Providence, was issued in an edition of 130\. Imagine an edition of that size printed in 45 press runs: that adds up to more than 5,800 individual passes through the press, each one needing to land in exactly the right place.

## Painting With Wood: Why His Prints Look Like Watercolors

People who see a Mortensen print for the first time often mistake it for a watercolor. That is no accident. Because each color is printed on top of the previous ones, the inks build up in overlapping layers. This creates soft transitions, glowing light and a depth that feels painted rather than printed. The watercolor studies he made at the start also meant that each print was designed from the very beginning to capture the qualities of a painting.

At the same time, the grain of the wood often shows through the layers of ink, giving his skies and fields a quiet texture that no brush could produce.

Mortensen summed up his approach in one sentence:

> "A print succeeds because of the relationship of colors."

Instead of relying on outlines, he built his images from shapes and the way they relate to each other through pattern, depth and contrast. His soft, opalescent hues capture the mood of a landscape more than its details.

His palette also changed with his surroundings. His early prints of North Dakota and the Upper Midwest have muted tones and a quiet winter light. After he settled in California, his colors grew brighter, with coastal lagoons, dunes and sunlit hills.

## Gordon Mortensen and the Japanese Woodblock Tradition

Mortensen was an American artist working in a technique developed in the West. Still, his work is in constant dialogue with Japanese woodblock printing, which is why it resonates so strongly with lovers of Japanese art.

### How His Method Differs From Japanese Woodblock Printing

|                  | Traditional Japanese woodblock (ukiyo-e and shin-hanga)          | Gordon Mortensen's reduction woodcut                          |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Blocks**       | A key block for the outlines plus separate blocks for the colors | One single block, carved again after every color              |
| **Who makes it** | Artist, carver, printer and publisher each play a role           | Mortensen designed, carved and printed everything himself     |
| **Ink**          | Water-based pigments mixed with rice paste                       | Oil-based inks                                                |
| **Printing**     | Rubbed by hand with a baren                                      | Printed on a press                                            |
| **Reprints**     | Blocks survive, so later editions are possible                   | The block is destroyed, so the edition can never be reprinted |
| **Paper**        | Washi, often made from kozo (paper mulberry)                     | Handmade Japanese mulberry paper                              |

### A Shared Spirit: Sōsaku Hanga

In classic ukiyo-e and in the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement of the 20th century, a woodblock print was a team effort. The artist created the design, specialist carvers and printers turned it into a print, and a publisher financed and sold the result.

In the early 20th century, a new movement in Japan challenged that system. Sōsaku hanga, or "creative prints," held that the artist should do everything personally: draw the design (*jiga*), carve the block (*jikoku*) and print it (*jizuri*). The movement is often traced back to 1904, when Yamamoto Kanae carved and printed his own image, *Fisherman*.

Mortensen's practice embodies the same ideal. He planned, drew, carved and printed his works himself. In the reduction method, this is not even a choice: every carving decision depends on the color that was just printed, so design, carving and printing cannot be separated.

If you love the atmospheric landscapes of shin-hanga masters such as Kawase Hasui and Hiroshi Yoshida, with their snowy evenings, misty lakes and glowing skies, you will likely feel at home in Mortensen's winter afternoons and quiet coastal lagoons.

### The Role of Japanese Mulberry Paper

Mortensen printed on handmade Japanese mulberry paper. In Japan, handmade paper is known as washi, and some of the most prized varieties are made from kozo, the inner bark of the paper mulberry. Its long, strong fibers make the paper tough enough to survive dozens of trips through the press, while its absorbency lets layer upon layer of ink settle into the sheet. It is one of the reasons his colors feel so soft and luminous.

The craft behind this paper is so valued that in 2014 UNESCO added washi, the craftsmanship of traditional Japanese handmade paper, to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

## Notable Works by Gordon Mortensen

- ***Late January* (1975):** An early color woodcut from his Midwest years, now in the collection of the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
- ***Lagoon and Highlands*:** Acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1977, together with a series of progressive proofs that record the print at different stages of the reduction process. It is a rare chance to see how one of his images was built up color by color.
- ***Meadowland* (1978):** A large color woodcut printed in an edition of 130, now in the RISD Museum.
- ***Foothills* (1978)**
- ***A Winter Afternoon* (1979)**
- ***April in Tahoe* (1985)**
- ***Carmel Bay* (1989):** A view of the California coast from his later, brighter period.
- ***Dunes at Spanish Bay*:** Coastal dunes on California's Monterey Peninsula.

## Where to See Gordon Mortensen's Work

Mortensen's prints are held in the collections of major American museums, including:

- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
- Brooklyn Museum, New York
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
- Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
- Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
- Portland Art Museum, Oregon
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Monterey Museum of Art, California
- RISD Museum, Providence
- Chazen Museum of Art, Madison

Works on paper are sensitive to light, so prints like these usually spend most of their time in storage. Before you visit, check the museum's online collection. Many museums also offer print study rooms where you can request to see works by appointment. You can already view [*Lagoon and Highlands* at the Smithsonian](https://americanart.si.edu/node/27514?ref=jpnstudio.com), [*Meadowland* at the RISD Museum](https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/meadowland-2019113?ref=jpnstudio.com) and [*Late January* at the Chazen Museum of Art](https://chazen.wisc.edu/collection/10005/late-january?ref=jpnstudio.com) online.

Signed and numbered Mortensen prints also appear regularly at galleries and auctions, where collectors value them for their painterly color and remarkable craftsmanship.

## Why Gordon Mortensen Matters

Gordon Mortensen took one of the most demanding methods in printmaking and pushed it further than almost anyone. With a single block of basswood, dozens of colors and months of patient work, he created landscapes that feel as delicate as watercolors and as timeless as the Japanese prints that share their spirit.

A painter from the plains of North Dakota, printing on Japanese paper, living out the ideals of Japan's creative print movement: his work is proof that the language of the woodblock has no borders.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Who is Gordon Mortensen?

Gordon Louis Mortensen is an American printmaker, born on April 27, 1938, near Arnegard, North Dakota. He began as a portrait painter and became one of the best known reduction woodcut artists in the United States, famous for luminous landscape prints.

### What is a reduction woodcut?

A reduction woodcut is a color print made from one single block of wood. The artist carves the block, prints a color on every sheet, then carves the block again and prints the next color. The process repeats until the image is finished and the block is used up, so the edition can never be reprinted.

### How many colors did Gordon Mortensen use in his prints?

Many of his later prints used between 23 and 47 colors. His most ambitious works used up to 64 colors and 45 press runs, and a single edition could take up to three months to complete.

### Why do Gordon Mortensen's prints look like watercolors?

He planned each print with a watercolor study, and his layered colors overlap to create soft transitions and glowing light. Printed on absorbent Japanese mulberry paper, the result looks remarkably close to a painting.

### Is Gordon Mortensen a Japanese artist?

No, Gordon Mortensen is American. His work connects to Japanese art through the woodblock medium, his use of handmade Japanese mulberry paper and a self-made approach that echoes Japan's sōsaku hanga movement.

### Where can I see Gordon Mortensen's work?

His prints are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and many other museums across the United States.

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