CWAJ Print Show

Following the Kyung Sun Kim…A Mother’s Day Tribute

Last October I posted about the CWAJ Print Show and in particular, this print Nature story-(heaven), by the Young Printmaker Award Winner Kyung Sun Kim. It is an edition of only 3 prints and at the time I knew that the artist would keep one, the Daigaku Hanga Gakkai (Committee of Universities of Art for Print Studies in Japan) where it was originally displayed would keep one, leaving only a single print for sale at the CWAJ show. At the time I thought it would be fun to try to follow where it ended up and while I wanted it very much, I was sure a donor or VIP would buy it at the opening reception before I had a chance to. Little did I know that my true competition would come in a much closer and more personal form – my mother!

My mom never worked as a professional designer, but her house was famous for its perfection in our neighborhood growing up. While everyone else of her generation was falling prey to the excesses of faux French Provincial in the 1970s, my mom held tight to her modernist ideals and her Paul McCobb bedroom set (walnut mind you, not the blond stuff). She suffered the disappointment of a so-called “friend” who stole her long-planned decorating scheme, but triumphed in the end by doing it better. And who can forget the year of the “Great Flood”? No, not Noah’s flood, but the year the pipes burst in our house during Christmas vacation. Water ran for days before it was discovered and I recall crossing the Verrazano Bridge at midnight on New Years Eve, racing to get home. The flood ended up being a blessing in disguise, allowing her to pull out all the original ceilings and raise high the roof beams, realizing a creative vision she had for a simple development house. Nowadays, besides a bad back, her biggest problem is all the neighbors coming over to question and copy her best ideas!

My mom often reads the blog and sends me emails on the side wondering what I like so much about a particular room. We can be such opposites – color and clutter versus bare and beige. But over the years her palette has expanded and she has squeezed in a few good Louis pieces too. (And the famous family saying “all antiques are just firewood” was actually coined by my dad.) Having seen my post on the Print Show, she promptly called me and said she “had to have it,” and a good girl never argues with her mom. But truthfully, it is so rare that our taste intersects so exactly and so difficult to find things that she truly wants that I was thrilled. So this YPA winner’s print has traveled from Tokyo to Florida to take up residence with her.

Nature story-(heaven) now hangs above the bed, the color and size just perfect in the high-ceilinged room. She has come up with a few other ingenious ways of dealing with the huge volume of space, like the hanging night lights.

My mom likes to think things through (often at odd hours of the night, which works with a daughter halfway round the world) and get it right. Before she committed to the hanging night lights, she photoshopped some examples to be sure. That brings me to the first of her decorating and life rules – Positive visualization.

Continuing along with the list:

Mix custom with ready-made.

Strive for balance and scale.

No detail is too small. Arrange untill perfect.

Recycle when possible.

Buy souvenirs wherever you go.

My mom comes from a long line of knitters and she taught me that so many things in life are like a knitting pattern. When you read it all at once, it makes no sense. The key is to start at the beginning and read one step at a time…Cast on 58 stitches…Decorating can be like that too.

And by the way, that isn’t the only large artwork from my life to make its way home with her. For more on Sakura in the Moonlight, click here.

Mom, thank you always and forever for everything! I love you!

May 8, 2011 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Interior Design 17 Comments Tags: CWAJ Print Show, hanga, japanese prints, Mothers Day

Artist Spotlight…Risa Hirose’s Ephemeral Beauties

God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December.
J.M. Barrie

Pierre de Ronsard, St. Cecilia, Baron Girod de l’Ain, Septer’d Isle…these are some of the roses that grow both literally and figuratively in Risa Hirose’s garden. The beauty of the flowers is matched by the beauty of their names and Hirose finds her inspiration in them. Rose is also a play on her name and that is often reflected in the titles of her pieces such as in her print Hi rose-essence- shown above. In her second and final year in the Master’s program at Tokyo Zokei Univeristy, Ms. Hirose’s wood engravings have already won numerous competitions and she has held solo exhibitions and been selected for the CWAJ Print Show for the past two years.

Wood engraving is a type of relief printmaking in which an image is cut away, leaving a raised surface on which the ink is applied and then transferred to paper. Traditional wood blocks are carved with the grain of the wood and the prints often display or even feature the grain as a part of the artist’s vision. On the other hand, wood engraving uses wood cut across the grain of the wood – like a slice of tree trunk. The prints tend to be small, as they are limited by the size of the trunk or branch (about 15cm in diameter), as in the example below.

Hirose uses the traditional tsuge (boxwood) for her blocks, which is very hard, very slow-growing and perfect for carving incredibly fine detail. Her small works are often single images in the round, using the shape of the block as the outermost border, such as in Passion ToKei, her first print to be exhibited at the 2009 CWAJ Print Show. Look very closely at the image below – it is not a print – it is actually the carved block used to make the print. Her technical mastery is amazing.

To get the meticulous detail she is known for, Hirose hand prints the blocks onto super fine translucent gampi paper. Thicker paper would not yield such detail. After drying, each one is carefully trimmed and attached with a natural based glue to heavier paper. Here is the artist herself, standing in front of drying gampi paper impressions of one of her newest works Things That Day. This new print is a memory of her trip to Okinawa and adds bougainvillea and coral to her repertoire.

To make a large wood engraving, an artist will align a group of blocks like a parquet floor, one square next to another. This is not the system Hirose uses. She uses (and re-uses) her blocks like modular components, placing them in her compositions. Unlike most traditional wood block prints, where uniformity is prized, each one of hers is different as placement cannot be exact. The large work below, Diary-pale,moisture-, is 110cm x 75cm, an unfeasible size for a regular wood engraving. Her collage-like approach and use of empty space is one of the thing that makes Hirose’s prints unusual.

In another large print, Document 1-one prior fragment-, shown below, you can see some of the components repeated from the print above. You can also see certain images repeated within the print, for example the hyacinth bulb, the small rosebuds and daisies.

Hirose’s artistic themes revolve around the idea of “sealing down time”, yet ironically, the prints themselves contain an impermanent and changeable material. After glueing each small print to the larger paper, she crushes rose petals directly on each piece, creating a wash of soft pigment. The color starts out as a rich purple and fades over time to a champagne-like color. In each step of her work she layers on the small differences giving each print in the edition a unique quality. Below is a close-up of the center of Document 1-one prior fragment- when it was originally created a few months ago.

Here it is faded as it currently appears now. I think it is amazing to watch a normally static art form develop and mature over time.

Risa Hirose will have a print at the upcoming annual exhibition of the Daigaku Hanga Gakkai (Committee of Universities of Art for Print Studies in Japan) held at Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts from December 5-19, 2010, along with other print work by more than 280 students. There will small prints by the students available for sale – some for only 1000yen each.

And her new day job when she graduates this spring? Ms. Hirose will be an engraver at the Japanese Mint. So each time you hold a fresh yen bill, you too can have your own Risa Hirose engraving.

N.B. I am a little frustrated with this post as none of the photos begin to show the elusive quality of her work, or even the absolute excellence of her technique. I guess it is simply a limitation of the medium.

All images copyrighted by Risa Hirose. Please do not re-post without writing to me for permission. Thank you.

Nov 11, 2010 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight 2 Comments Tags: CWAJ Print Show, japanese prints, Risa Hirose, roses, wood block prints, wood engraving

Artist Spotlight…55th CWAJ Print Show

For the past 6 years I have had the honor of working with the College Women’s Association of Japan on their annual exhibition of hanga – Japanese contemporary prints. This year is no exception. Featuring 195 prints by 181 artists, including the foremost printmakers in the field as well as 32 debut artists, the show gives viewers a real taste of the breadth of work being made. The prints span the full range of different printmaking techniques, from traditional woodblock to intaglio to silkscreen, as well as variety of subject matter.

Since the inception of the Print Show in 1956, CWAJ has worked tirelessly to produce one of the most prestigious hanga shows, using the proceeds to fund their respected scholarship program. What I find even more extraordinary than the artwork itself is the strength of the commitment that has kept an exhibition of this size and stature running by an entirely volunteer organization for 55 years.

In discussing the prints below, I have left family names in all capital letters (a CWAJ convention to avoid name confusion) and titles in parenthesis are English translations.

While some artists are more local names, many are well-known abroad including Yuji HIRATSUKA. His print TRADERS is my favorite one of his since Rock Around the Clock from Print Show 2006. What really stands out is the layered texture and color detail of his intaglio/chine collé technique – her skirt just makes me want to get up and dance!

The perennially popular Daniel Kelly returns to koi fish in his offering WHATS UP for this year’s show. I love the perspective and the narrow elongated form of his piece. Not all makers of hanga are Japanese – Daniel Kelly is an American artist who has been living and working in Kyoto for years.

For those wanting traditional woodblock prints with the old sōsaku hanga feel, look no further than two of the best (and more expensive) prints in the show. Akira KUROSAKI’s best print in years, Eight Views of Omi “Descending Geese at Katata” is a direct play on Hiroshige’s famous series while Isamu MORISHIMA’s The Moon at Musashi Plain makes me feel as if it could be 1920 filtered through a modern-day lens.

In contrast, a new gritty, almost photographic direction is taken by Kin-ichi MAKI in Which way to go 1 and Tadanori YOKOO (Soul and Body Intersected)

Looking to buy a print that is good for the environment? In addition to being beautiful, Atsuhiko MUSASHI’s BLIND FLOWERS 10-FEB is a green print. His technique, polymer intaglio, is non-toxic and does not require acid to etch the image, instead using a photosensitive polymer plate.

Highlighted in the 2007 Show, Keisuke YAMAMOTO’s dramatic monochrome prints, like Staircase D at left, sold out. This year he has submitted two prints on a completely different theme – almost romantic views of Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto – one in snow and the other in spring. While his topic has changed, his painterly command of the lithographic process has not. That is why they are “almost romantic”, as the preciseness of his technique keeps them from being at all saccharine.

If you are looking for a nostalgic print, Takeyoshi NAKAYAMA’s (Night before Gion Festival[Sugimoto Residence] ) is one of his most charming in years. The soft rose tones of the lantern make it a perfect piece for a daughter going away to college or setting up her first apartment.

Another good “old Japan” choice is Noboru YAMATAKA’s traditional woodcut (Kabukiza Theater) as they will soon be knocking the theater down. Kill two birds with one stone and own both a piece of art and a piece of history.

My favorite newcomers include Mio OHMORI (Flower in water-Standing) as I am a sucker for its watery lavender thistles or the abstract expressionism of Eiji OBA’s (Blue and Black-101).

Another print close to my heart is Nature story-(heaven) by the Young Printmaker Award winner Kyung Sun KIM as I was the co-chair of the YPA committee this year. Evaluating student artwork and their grant proposals is a joy, as the level of the work has been so high. The scanned photo below doesn’t begin to do justice to the color and detail in this woodcut, nor does it suggest how large it is (100cm x 150cm). It is a very small edition of 3, so I imagine it will be gone by the end of the Donor and Artist Reception Thursday night.

My guess on what will sell out? The catalog cover print, Onbu by Sohee KIM, and not simply because it is the cover print and only an edition of 15. For Kim, the image represents “the burden she [the figure] is feeling from the overwhelming affection and expectations of her family and friends.” Affection and expectations? Well she might see it that way, but every woman I know has had an absolutely visceral response to what they see as an amazingly huge (but beautiful) pile of laundry.

I could write about every print in the show, but neither space nor time allow. The 55th CWAJ Print Show opens to the public in Tokyo on Friday, October 15 (10a.m.-8p.m.), Saturday, October 16 (11a.m.-6p.m.) and Sunday, October (11a.m. –5p.m.) at the Tokyo American Club. Free admission. Membership is not required for attendance. I’ll be working as a docent on Friday morning until 1:30 and Sunday until 2p.m. Please stop by – this is a don’t miss event!! The following weekend it travels to the Kobe Club, so if you live in the Kansai region you can catch it there.

Interested in working on the Print Show? Join CWAJ and get started. Volunteers are needed for returning day in November and that will give you a chance to actually touch and see the work close up.

Image Credits: All images except #9 from the 55th CWAJ Print Show catalogue. Image #9 form the 52nd CWAJ Print Show catalogue.

Oct 13, 2010 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight Tags: CWAJ Print Show, hanga, japanese prints