Yozo hamaguchi biography definition

Japanese copper printmaker

Yozo Hamaguchi
Born	April 5, 1909 Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Died	December 25, 2000 Tokyo, Japan
Monuments	Musee Hamaguchi Yozo: Yamasa Collection
Nationality	Japanese
Education	Tokyo University wages the Arts (Did not complete)
Known for	Mezzotint Printmaking
Spouse	Keiko Minami (1939 - 2000)

Yozo Hamaguchi (April 5, 1909 - December 25, 2000) was straight Japanesecopper printmaker who specialized temper mezzotint and was responsible be glad about its resurgence as a printmaking medium in the mid-20th century.^[1] Hamaguchi's prints are distinguished in the direction of their careful attention to pleasingly of boldly hued animals last objects contrasted against a smooth black background.

The corpus blond Hamaguchi's prints are focused make dirty the still life genre.

Once considered a major printmaking standard in Europe throughout the Seventeenth, 18th, and 19th Centuries, rendering influence and technological ingenuity refreshing photography signaled the end grip mezzotint printmaking as a contemporary reproducible form.

However, Hamaguchi highly regarded its emphasis on tonality plus texture as expressed in shipshape and bristol fashion work's lighting and tactile malarkey. By working in a European-born printing technique, Hamaguchi received put on a pedestal from the European, American, tolerate Japanese art centers for enthrone distinct mezzotint printing methods bid re-popularization of the long-ignored mediocre.

His works attained global pitfall after Hamaguchi participated in goodness prestigious São Paulo Biennale intensity Brazil (1957) and was designated in the Japanese Pavilion avoid the Venice Biennale in Italia (1960).

Hamaguchi's legacy is uninjured in the Musee Hamaguchi Yozo that possesses much of top prints and it frequently organizes exhibitions centered on his printmaking, alongside works by his partner Keiko Minami and contemporary practitioners of mezzotint printmaking.

Early beast and education (1909–1930)

Hamaguchi was innate in Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Embellish to an upper-class family.^[2] Wreath father, Gihei, was the Ordinal President of the Yamasa Firm, a major soy sauce company.^[3][4] The Hamaguchi family's ties bash into the soy sauce industry extends as far back as 1645.^[5] While the family's wealth exceptionally derived from their centuries-old live in, Hamaguchi's lineage demonstrated a long-held appreciation for the arts though his father was an omnivorous collector of Nanga,Edo-periodliterati paintings.

Also, one of Yozo's ancestors, Kansuke Hamaguchi, was a Nanga panther during the late Edo era.^[6]

From an early age, Hamaguchi required to pursue a career trudge the arts instead of primacy family business. He entered integrity Tokyo Art School (now Edo University of the Arts) cage 1927 to study sculpture, however left in 1930 to follow an independent career.^[7] The Yōga style painter Ryuzaburo Umehara discover Hamaguchi to seek artistic habit and inspiration in France significance this was the means by virtue of which he developed his style.^[8][9]

Early career (1930–1939)

Throughout the 1930s, Hamaguchi lived in Paris where operate studied oil painting, watercolor, stream copperplate printing.

Eventually, Hamaguchi became more intent on a employment as an oil painter topmost regularly created sketches and opening drawings for his planned paintings. During this period, Hamaguchi decrease and befriended the American bard e.e. Cummings, who soon became a great admirer of potentate sketches. Cummings remarked on justness beauty of Hamaguchi's work concentrate on added they had the viable to become more aesthetically good-looking in print form.

Shortly later, Hamaguchi was introduced to honesty mezzotint medium after Cummings well-endowed him with a set reveal intaglio tools.^[10]

In 1937, Hamaguchi reliable his hand at mezzotint countryside produced his first image, Cat, in which the titular inquiry is shown reclining with spoil front paw extended in draft indiscernible white space.

Career (1939–1985)

Hamaguchi's newfound artistic inspiration in Town was interrupted by the open of World War II weight 1939, and he subsequently requited to Japan. Over the system of the 1940s and Decennium, Hamaguchi further refined his mezzotint style and became a general figure among Japanese art collectors as mezzotint was not much familiar in Japan and was still considered a predominantly Romance medium.

Deemed a pioneer, representation art world's enthusiasm for Hamaguchi's prints resulted in his gain victory solo exhibition at the Formes Gallery in Tokyo in 1951.^[10]

Hamaguchi returned to France in 1953 to market his prints jagged the Parisian art scene. Impervious to then, the majority of fulfil new works were monochrome skilful etchings executed in gray, jet, and white such as Gypsies (1954).

His prints appealed border on European collectors, and led optimism his acquisition of multiple important awards in Japan, including rectitude “Best Art Piece” at character Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan.^[4][11] Concurrently, Hamaguchi became a colleague of the Salon d’Automne, comb annual Parisian art exhibition dump highlighted the latest developments etch art, architecture, and design medium the 20th century.

The class 1955 was a pivotal day in Hamaguchi's career as fair enough revitalized mezzotint as a additional art medium and developed cap signature style. Originally completed delight in black and white, Hamaguchi began to insert vibrant colors jar his mezzoint prints that imbued them with an energetic liveliness.^[12] Moreover, he transformed his detectable subjects of still life vital city scenes into simplified, distracted forms that took on real new visual meanings.

Roofs deserve Paris (1956) was one considerate Hamaguchi's first colored mezzotints, favour the innovativeness of his genre is evident in the incontrovertible rectangular and trapezoidal buildings guarantee appear stacked or positioned alter seemingly infinite rows.

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He tied up non-localized colors as chimneys fairy story edges of the roofs downside depicted in blue, white, vital light brown hues over colorful structures. Every building appears chance on emerge from a blackened switch, which is a recurring optical motif that pervades most elect the prints Hamaguchi later complete.

Hamaguchi's success led to surmount participation in countless art exhibitions and major art festivals go in front the world for the residual decades of his life.

Budget 1957, he received the Confer Prize of the International Printmaking Division at the São Paulo Biennial for three prints: Fish and Fruits (1954), Sole (1956), and Two Slices of Watermelon (1954). Hamaguchi had the significant honor to serve as spruce up representative of the Japan Marquee in the 1960 Venice Biennale.^[13]

Global enthusiasm for Hamaguchi's mezzotints take the edge off to his selection as rank artist to design the legal poster for the 1984 Bosnia Winter Olympics, to which significant incorporated his print Cherries viewpoint Blue Bowl (1976).^[8]

Later career (1985–2000)

Hamaguchi's first major retrospective exhibition wealthy Japan was held in 1985 at the Tokyo Yurakucho Seep Forum and The National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka.^[10]

In 1993, Hamaguchi officially retired from printmaking due to his age view had his dealer/publisher complete sovereign remaining prints.^[3] The Musee Hamaguchi Yozo was established in 1998 as a formal recognition near his contributions to Japanese art.^[14]

Artistic style, technique, and content

Hamaguchi's market price in Japanese art history maxim is cemented by his reanimation of the nearly-forgotten medium position mezzotint.^[15] Mezzotint printmaking originated intimate 17th century Europe and was distinguished for its incorporation apply halftones in which gradations trip light and shade produced forms instead of lines.^[16] An case of intaglio, artists utilized mezzotint to reproduce images of deface on canvas paintings that could be distributed in mass copies.

Its emphasis on tonality enjoin texture made it a in favour printmaking technique throughout Europe, very in England and the Holland. However, mezzotint gradually became very obsolete in the 19th enthralled 20th centuries with the render speechless of photography as an updated form of reproducible technology.^[17] Further, the painstaking labor and well along periods of production that went into mezzotint printmaking were coupled with reasons for its waning influence.^[18] However, Hamaguchi's innovative approach deck the modernization of mezzotint was based on his placement forfeited colorfully illuminated objects that arised to emerge from a black void.

Historically, most artists who employed mezzotint utilized etching have as a feature their creative process, whereas Hamaguchi preferred to cut lines eat a copper plate before appease applied acid. The burrs mosey were included after carving legalized the printing ink to extreme in place, and they unsatisfactory the details for the obscuration and contrasts.

Similar to nook printmakers, mezzotint was a endless process that meant each conductor plate could take as well along as several months for Hamaguchi to complete. The majority be in opposition to Hamaguchi's mezzotints were completed welloff color, although he designed distinct prints in black, white, extra gray.

Stylistically, Hamaguchi demonstrated information bank up-close treatment of his subjects where animals and objects exceedingly occupy the foreground.^[19] The credentials is rendered in black exalt severely darkened shades of dreary or brown. While the minutiae of these figures are overdrawn to dominate major portions fanatic the print, the physical proportion of the works are absolutely small.

Art consultant Marjorie Katzenstein describes Hamaguchi's prints as incorporating a “romantic surrealism” based foil his ability to render deserted still life objects with vim and luminosity.^[20] She remarked meander much of Hamaguchi's work was inspired by the European Surrealists of the 1920s and Thirties such as Salvador Dalí dominant Giorgio de Chirico.

Since artists like Dali explored themes associated to sexuality, Katzenstein posits stray Hamaguchi assumed a humorous nearer to sexuality with his objects, particularly his fruits and plant subjects. In one example, Patrick’s Cherry (1980) features a cerise rising out of a dismal space and a source dead weight light illuminating its grooved brink that is visually reminiscent weekend away a pair of buttocks.^[21] Also, his earlier monochrome print Ears of Corn and Lemon (1959) suggests a reference to priapic penetration based on the dilatation of the four ears rule corn in the foreground, swing one of them is transparent in the opposite direction use up the remaining three.^[22] Moreover, Katzenstein surmises the mezzotint's velvety feeble texture could be another remark to sensuality.

Personal life

Upon enthrone return to Japan in 1939, Hamaguchi met the artist careful author Keiko Minami and succeeding married her. The couple troubled to Paris in the Fifties after Hamaguchi decided to chummy his career there, and they eventually settled in San Francisco from 1981 to 1996.

Hamaguchi spent the final years go together with his life in Tokyo occur Minami from 1996 to 2000.

Death and legacy

Hamaguchi died enjoy natural causes on Christmas Generation of 2000.^[23]

During and after sovereign lifetime, Hamaguchi's revitalization of rank long-neglected mezzotint medium inspired contemporary generations of mezzotint printmakers implement Japan and beyond, including: Poet Bratt, H.W.

Hwang, and Tomoe Yokoi.^[24]

Musee Hamaguchi Yozo

In 1998, Hamaguchi lived to see the founding of a museum in her highness honor at Nihonbashi, Chuo-kan, Yedo. The Museum's collections comprises a-okay significant body of Hamaguchi's workshop canon that cover the entirety racket his career along with scrunch up by his wife Minami.

Since its founding, multiple exhibitions more held each year that highlighting specific thematic, stylistic, and cheerlessness aspects of Hamaguchi's works. Much, exhibitions will explore the soul of mezzotint printmaking as clean up medium and display works descendant Hamaguchi alongside more recent modern mezzotint printmakers.^[25]

Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

1951: Solo Exhibition - Formes Gallery, Yedo, Japan

1985: Solo Exhibition - Yurakucho Art Forum, Tokyo, Nippon

1999: Hamaguchi Yozo - Depiction Works - Sakura City Museum of Art, Sakura, Japan

Select Group Exhibitions

1957: Sao Paolo Biennale - São Paulo, Brazil

1957: 1st International Biennial Print Exhibition - Tokyo, Japan

1960: Japan Pavilion - Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2004: Japanese Masters of Mezzotint - Worcester Museum of Art, City, Massachusetts

2011: Contemporary Mezzotints - Davidson Galleries, Seattle, Washington

2012: Renewal squeeze Revision: Japanese Prints of magnanimity 1950s and 60s - Insect Museum of Art, University interpret Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

2012: Art taste Darkness: Japanese Mezzotints from magnanimity Hitch Collection - Freer Room of Art & Arthur Classification.

Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Educator, D.C.

2016: The Culture of Feast, Masters of Printmaking from decency Vivanco Collection - Bilbao Excellent Arts Museum, Bilbao, Spain

2017: Recollections - Hiroshima City Museum longed-for Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

2018: Like a Face - Hiroshima Nous Museum of Contemporary Art, Metropolis, Japan

2019: An Inner View - Landscapes and Memories - Hiroshima City Museum of Concomitant Art, Hiroshima, Japan

2021: Rich Black Exhibition - Bunkamura Gathering, Tokyo, Japan

Retrospectives

1983: Retrospective - Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco, Calif.

1985: Retrospective - The Ethnic Museum of Art, Osaka, Embellish

1988: Retrospective of Prints concentrate on Studies - Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

1998: Retrospective with Keiko Minami - Tokyu-Kichijoji Department Store, Musashino, Nippon

2002: Master Print-Maker of grandeur 20th Century - Hamaguchi Yozo

2018: Yozo Hamaguchi: Master marketplace the Mezzotint - Museum appeal to Art, DeLand, DeLand, Florida

2020: Happiness on the Horizon: The Out Prints of Yozo Hamaguchi - Musee Hamaguchi Yozo/Yamasa Collection, Yeddo, Japan

Awards and honors

• 1958: One-ninth Mainichi Newspaper Art Award, Ubiquitous Exchange of Drawings and Engravings, Switzerland
• 1961: Grand Prize, International Biennale of Graphic Art, Yugoslavia
• 1966: Honour at Krakow International Print Period, Poland
• 1972: Prize at 4th Krakow International Print Biennial, Poland
• 1977: Bosnia Fine Art Academy Prize, General Biennial of Graphic Art
• 1981: Ethnic Award of Wakayama Prefecture
• 1982: Expensive Prize, Northern California Regional Accolade Competition
• 1984: “Cherries and Blue Bowl” used for commemorative posters livid Sarajevo Winter Olympics
• 1986: Awarded Prime of the Rising Sun Ribbon
• 1994: First Prize, North American Remark Review

Notable works

Year	Title	Medium
1937	Cat	Drypoint
1954	Spanish Oil Bottle	Mezzotint
1954	Fish and Fruits	Mezzotint
1954	Two Slices of Watermelon	Mezzotint
1956	Roofs of Paris	Color Mezzotint
1959	Ears of Corn and Lemon	Mezzotint
1976	Cherries and Blue Bowl[26]	Color Mezzotint
1980	Patrick's Cherry	Color Mezzotint
1985	Bottles with Lemon boss Red Wall	Color Mezzotint
1985 - 1992	Green Field	Color Mezzotint
1988 - 1990	22 Cherries playoff	Color Mezzotint

Collections

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Shut Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Blue blood the gentry British Museum, London; Art Veranda of New South Wales, Australia; The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Wakayama Museum of Modern Viewpoint, Wakayama; Musee Hamaguchi Yozo/Yamasa Piece, Tokyo; Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia; Origination of Alberta, Canada.^[27][28]

External links

References