Showa Abstract Prints

Paper Size: 37.4 x 31.6 cm Image Size: 27 x 24 cm Print on paper, signed in pencil to the right, Edition in pencil 39/58. There is an artist water mark in the paper (see image) As South Asian specialist's we knew nothing about this fabulous print when we first set eyes on it but the form and presence of the piece was so compelling we snapped it up. Purchased from an estate sale in the UK. Research has led us to the information in the listing. As art specialists, the handling of the print would suggest a period around the 1960's. There is a watermark with the artist's name in the paper, to the right hand side, not visible unless held up to light. Junichiro Sekino (1914-1988) was one of the leading artists of the Sosaku Hanga movement and is widely considered one of Japan's most important 20th century print artists. His work is collected by the Museum of Modern Art, N. Y., Seattle Art Museum...

Toshi Yoshida, 'Transcendance', color woodblock print, 1968, edition 120. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '117/120' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove Japan paper; the full sheet with margins (9/16 to 1 inch); slight toning on the top and right sheet edges, well away from the image, otherwise in very good condition. Image size 19 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches; sheet size 21 3/8 x 16 1/16 inches (double Oban). Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Exhibited: 'Color in Relief: Wood Block Prints from Origins to Abstraction', Georgetown University Library, 2016. Collection: Georgetown University Library. ABOUT THE ARTIST Yoshida Toshi (1911-1995) began training at age 14 under his father Yoshida Hiroshi, one of the most acclaimed artists of the Japanese 20th-century printmaking revival movement shin-hanga (’new prints’ created in the traditional collaborative system of Japanese printmaking). He studied from 1932 to 1935 at the Taiheiyo-Gakai (Pacific Painting Association), which was co-founded by his father. Before the Pacific War, Toshi traveled widely with his father in Asia, Europe, Egypt, and the United States. Later he continued his worldwide travels, especially in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Africa. Following his father’s death in 1950, Toshi began his very personal exploration of abstraction, joining the sôsaku-hanga movement (’creative prints’ wherein the artist is creator, carver, and printer). During this richly creative period (1954 to 1973), Toshi created over three hundred nonobjective designs. In the early 1960s, Toshi returned to large-scale figurative work, concentrating on scenes of African wildlife in its natural habitat, and in 1984 he published the first of many illustrated children's books on African wildlife (Dobutsu Ehon Shirizu), which he continued to produce until the early 1990s. In 1966 he published a book with the artist Yuki Rei...