What is linocut?
Linocut printing is a type of relief printing process where an artist carves an image on a piece of linoleum, then ink is rolled on the uncut parts, and paper is pressed on the block to reveal the image left behind. This is a similar process to woodcut, which is another block printing medium. The beauty of this art form is the ability to reproduce many prints of the same image most often in editions - as well as being able to print in many different ink colors. Each print is still unique as often times creating them by hand will have variations from print to print.
History of lino prints
While not super well documented, we know that linoleum was first invented for flooring purposes, then later turned into a medium for artists similar to woodcut. It transitioned to an art medium around the late 1800s to early 1900s. Early on it was seen as something fit for only amateurs, but while being a great tool to start with, it’s also something many artists excel with and create brilliant works of art.
A notable artist partaking in this medium is Pablo Picasso, who has often been cited as creating reduction prints - but most likely just popularized it. This is a technique where an artist will carve and print on the same block repeatedly, taking away more of the block to show details and colors in the image in layers. With this technique, you are only able to create one edition as the block will be only the final layer by the end.