Work V-1
Artist/Culture
Miyashita Tokio
(Japanese, 1930–2011)
DateUndated, late 1960s
Mediumwoodblock-intalgio print; oil- and water-based pigments on paper
Dimensions54 x 39.5 cm (21 1/4 x 15 9/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineHarriet B. Bancroft Fund
Object number1969.120
Label Text2004-08-06: MIYASHITA, Tokio (b. 1930)
Work V-I
Undated (late 1960s)
Ed. 17/35; signed in pencil Tokio Miyashita
Woodblock-intaglio print; oil- and water-based pigments on paper
Harriet B. Bancroft Fund, 1969.120
Miyashita says: "East meets West in my prints." The artist first studied Japanese woodblock printmaking with Hiratsuka Un'ichi and later Western etching methods with Sekino Jun'ichiro, while also tinkering with sheet metal and tools in the workshop of his father (a metal dealer). His characteristic woodblock-intaglio process was developed in 1962.
Miyashita's complex printing method is dependent on the use of kizuki kozo, a Japanese handmade paper. This paper is absorbent enough to take water-based pigments, printed using a woodblock and a disk-shaped baren (pressing pad rubbed on the back of the sheet). It is also strong enough to take the pressure of one of Miyashita's specially constructed zinc plates-with soldered wires and small etched and scratched copper plates-printed with black oil-based ink in an intaglio press.
Miyashita's brilliant background colors are achieved by printing the same areas several times, each time applying poster ink (often undiluted) with a brush onto the woodblocks. The delicate etched details and rough, solder contours are printed with the intaglio plate. A dark "patina" is superimposed onto the color-ground by leaving a thin veil of black ink on flat surfaces of the zinc-plate. Although balanced and related in terms of shape, size and placement, the etched abstract imagery seems elegantly random and asymmetrical.ProvenanceYoseido Gallery, TokyoOn View
Not on view
