On 14 September, Vilnius University Library launches a digital exhibition Tales of Decorated Paper, which not only relays many incredible stories about paper decoration but also introduces you to the five earliest paper decoration techniques from its golden age – the 18th century – that were used for the decoration of endpapers and covers of books, furniture, instruments or even wallpaper.
The five-part tale invites you to explore examples of block-printed, sprinkled, marbled, paste and brocade paper, to admire exquisite patterns and ingenuity of early book creators and decorators, to appreciate the subtlety of fine crafts and the art of decoration. Inspired by the stylistics of Oriental cultures, it combines both abstract geometrical and natural motifs.
A certain paper decoration technique and examples of such paper will be presented every week, therefore, every Tuesday for more than a month keen observers will be able to see five new incredibly colourful stories. The first story A Pacing Woodblock. Block-printed Paper Paper invites viewer to get to know a technique that uses woodblocks for the decoration of paper.
Digital exhibition Tales of Decorated Paper in Lithuanian and English languages has been launched on Google Arts and Culture. The first part – A Pacing Woodblock. Block-printed Paper – is available here>>
Other stories:
A Swarm, Landed. Sprinkled Paper – on 21 September
A Ripple, Captured. Marbled Paper – on 28 September
A Soft Footprint. Paste Paper – 5 October
A Golden Garden. Brocade Paper – 12 October