Papercutters Hall of Fame

"(Anton) Bruckner arrives in heaven." Silhouette papercutting by Otto Boehler, d. 1913, a silhouettist who specialized in figures from the music world. The image shows rejoicing cherubs and various souls from the past playing instruments, singing, and welcoming Anton Bruckner to heaven; on the right, a figure (Mozart?) plays a piano or organ, with cherubs sitting on top with little harps, violins, trumpets. — “(Anton) Bruckner arrives in Heaven.” Silhouette papercutting by Otto Böhler, d. 1913, a silhouettist who specialized in figures from the music world.

This page is dedicated to all those, within and without the Guild of American Papercutters, around the world, who have advanced the art and craft of papercutting over the years. This “Hall of Fame” owes its existence to the labor of love that has been carried out for so long by David Dorfmüller, himself a longtime Guild member and wonderful papercut artist, who created and maintains a sister page to this, papercutters.info. The following list contains many types of paper artists–illustrators, paper sculptors, silhouettists, puppeteers, filmmakers, magicians, and more–including some artists for whom papercutting itself may have been secondary to their primary art practice, e.g. early silhouettists who painted on glass. See also the ongoing wonderful compilation of papercutting artists by Elsa Mora Horberg, the artistic director and curator of ArtYard, on her site All About Papercutting. For silhouettes by UK artists, see the impressive work of the Profiles of the Past initiative, which is focused on British portrait silhouette history. Please send tips, suggestions for inclusion, photos or images of artwork that may be shown here, or even whole biographies or articles. Email us: GAP@papercutters.org

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