The Village

Melvin Frank Silverman

Mel Silverman, who passed away at age 35, did this woodcut for publication by Associated American Artists (AAA) in 1963. The AAA raisonné number is 1482.

Influences of Cubism and high-contrast Art Deco design come together to form this stylized view of a village on a hill. The crooked, negative-space outlines of rooftops lead the eye up to the village’s crowning structure - a chapel or fort - and the mirrored undulations of hills and clouds, carved left to right, balance the weight of the composition.

Melvin Silverman’s career was brief, but in that time he created among the most emblematic Modernist woodcuts of the time. A recurring theme in his work was the skyline of cities and villages he came across on his travels throughout Europe. An impression of “The Village” can be found at the Carnegie Museum of Art.