The earliest extant paper-cut art work in the world originated from China in the 6th century AD (Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties). This craft technology has been popular in China for at least a thousand years, while West Asia, Europe, and America started relatively late. It was not until the 16th century that various types of paper-cut works began to appear.
However, the Chinese are a bit strange. Even with a long history, paper-cutting works from the beginning to a thousand years later were still mainly used in areas related to religion and festivals, without any special evolutionary breakthroughs, while in Europe and the United States, The situation is different in each country. Although at the beginning, the creations were still based on elements from daily life such as landscapes and festivals, the content created later became richer and more diverse, and the progress was quite rapid. Modern paper cutting technology and precision have been greatly improved, but there are still people who insist on cutting beautiful works with their own hands and a pair of scissors!
New York artist Maude Whites paper-cut works are immediately distinctive. Whites signature feature is the use of extremely fine lines and spirals to represent extremely complex objects, such as feathers, ocean waves, dragon scales, etc., a balance between virtuality and reality. The perfection of the mastery is astonishing. It’s hard to imagine that these exquisite works were completed with just a pair of scissors, right?
