Engraving involves cutting with graver tools against the end grain, unlike the Japanese ukiyo-e method of cutting with the grain. He took further instruction in this and other techniques some years later when he attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris in 1955-56. 1954, woodcut (image: 397 x 590 mm)įrom as early as 1939, Kitaoka worked in wood engraving, or what in Japanese is called itame mokuhan ("cross-grain" woodcut: 板目木版). Kitaoka mentioned that Hiratsuka opened his eyes to the possibilities inherent in woodcuts, and that simplifying the forms could lead to genuine expressiveness. The influence of Hiratsuka is readily apparent in the composition, manner of rendering forms, and overlapping green and blue colors on the distant shore. Located on Enoura Bay, Shizuura is an area that offers a view of Mt. One of the exceptions to Kitaoka's early monochrome work is a small landscape (200 x 280 mm) from 1939 entitled Shizuura fûkei (View of Shizuura: 静浦風景). The portrait is a minor masterpiece of the printmaker's art. Moreover, the rich black ink reveals those details remarkably well, thanks to the chine-collé technique. A small-format work (image 163 x 123 mm), Kitaoka's engraving displays a consummate command of the technique, featuring an extraordinary amount of detail in such a small pictorial space. The sitter was Hasegawa Kiyoshi (長谷川潔 1891-1980), a fellow artist widely known as an etcher and engraver who was dedicated to advancing the techniques of etching and mezzotint. It is printed on thin Japanese ganpi (雁皮) paper that was mounted in the European chine-collé manner to heavier paper for printing in an intaglio press. However, the portrait shown above is one of Kitaoka's later monochrome works done in the early style. The vast majority of Kitaoka's early wood engravings were done in monochrome. Form may take precedence over content in the immature state of a work of art, but in a consummate work, form and content are absolutely inseparable and should blend together in a perfect unity." However, it is true that content itself cannot make a work of art unless it has an appropriate form. Form is meaningless without content, so I consider content more important. I feel that I should derive my creative activity from the deeper thoughts of the Orient, from a feeling that has its roots in Japanese nature and the Japanese way of living. Interviewed in the 1970s, Kitaoka said about his mid-career prints that, "I want to express through the profundity of nature and the feeling of eternity. In the mid-60s, Kitaoka taught at the Minneapolis School of Art, where he was a Fulbright visiting professor (1964-65), and at the Pratt Graphic Arts Center in New York. While active within the Onchi circle, Kitaoka produced some abstract work and contributed designs to Ichimokushû (First Thursday Collection: 一木集) issues IV to VI (plus the cover for IV, 1948), the important portfolios produced by the Ichimokukai (First Thursday Society: 一木会) headed by Onchi. Kitaoka also became one of the many disciples of the seminal figure in abstract and experimental print design, Kôshirô Onchi.
#MOKU HANGA CLASSES PITTSBURGH SERIES#
His experiences in China led to the social-realist series titled Sokaku e no tabi (Return to the home country: 祖国への旅) in 1947 (see below). Graduating during the Second World War, Kitaoka initially taught art in Tokyo, but in January 1945 he was stationed as an art instructor in occupied Manchuria. Hiratsuka was one of the principal figures in the sôsaku hanga movement who, between 19, taught the first block-printing course at the school. Kitaoka Fumio (北岡文雄 1918-2007) studied printmaking with Hiratsuka Un'ichi at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (Tokyo School of Fine Arts, 東京美術学校).
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