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Stone Flower (Blue) (Ishi no hana (Ao))

Artist/Culture HIDEO Hagiwara (Japanese, 1913–2007)

Date1960

Mediumwoodblock print, ink, colors and mica on paper

Dimensionssheet: 67 × 99.5 cm (26 3/8 × 39 3/16 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineHarriet B. Bancroft Fund

Terms

Object number1969.114

Label Text2004-08-06: HAGIWARA, Hideo (b. 1913) Stone Flower: Blue (Ishi no hana (Ao)) 1960 Ed. 23/30; signed in pencil hideo hagiwara Woodblock print, ink, colors and mica on paper Harriet B. Bancroft Fund, 1969.114 Hagiwara Hideo was studying oil painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts when he attended Hiratsuka Un'ichi's extra-curricular woodblock printing course. He later worked at a woodblock print company in 1938, learning about ukiyo-e techniques. Conscripted into the army (1943-45), Hagiwara lost his house, studio and works in Tokyo air raids and became ill with tuberculosis. Nevertheless, the artist experimented with woodblock printing, expanding its potential, and had a solo print exhibition (1956). Hagiwara began to produce abstract works in 1958 and prints from his Stone Flower series, exhibited at the International Tokyo Print Biennale in 1960, brought him international recognition. The sensual texture of these prints is inspired by the surface-markings of ancient objects (i.e., earthenware pots, wood sculpture). The artist visualizes such a surface and then uses spikes and nails to scratch his impression into a woodblock. He also invented the use of deeply cut block-incisions filled with ink that, in printing, is gently pulled out, onto the paper. Hagiwara also glues sawdust onto the block-surface to achieve an aquatint-like effect. The intense color is achieved by first printing the reverse side of the paper with a dark dye, rubbed in swirls through to the front of the sheet with a metal-coil pressing pad. Over this enlivened surface Hagiwara will print from additional blocks, in the traditional way.ProvenanceYoseido Gallery, Tokyo

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