Gustave Baumann (1881 - 1971)
Hopi Katzinas, 1925
Woodblock print, 38/120, First Printing
12.25 x 13.25 inches
Signed in pencil and titled with artist's hand-in-heart ink stamp
Retail Price $19,500
"From his first years in New Mexico, Baumann was interested in traditional Pueblo and Hopi dolls and figurines, whose craftsmanship and childish delight combined with deep cultural significance in ways the artist found enchanting. He collected them avidly and became knowledgeable about their forms, decorations, and meanings. Among those he collected were the popular Kachina dolls, the representations of deified ancestral spirits (also called Kachinas) the Hopis believe periodically visit and effect our world. In Hopi rituals conceived to summon these spirits encourage their intercession - particularly for beneficial weather and bountiful hunts and harvest - dancers impersonate the Kachinas with vivid symbolic costumes and by performing specific dance steps. Traditionally during these ceremonies Kachina dolls are presented to the children. Carved from cottonwood roots to the children. Carved from cottonwood roots or branches, the dolls are gaily painted and decorated with buckskin, horsehair, and feathers.
The first woodcut representing Baumann's budding doll collection was Strangers from Hopi Land created around 1920. Judging from the number of times he submitted it for exhibition, he was proud of this print. A more ambitious piece, Hopi Katzina suggests how extensive the artist's collection of dolls had become by about 1925, and how the artist delighted in their every detail. The composition is simple and uncluttered, so as not to detract from the dolls' splendid ornamentation. The technical complexity of this print is outstanding, with its myriad colors and intricate designs. This woodcut precisely reproduces the artist's oil painting, now at the Museum of New Mexico, which is titled on the canvas "Pasatiempo." Like the artists of Santa Fe who organized and celebrated the annual Pasatiempo fiesta, Baumann's Kachinas assemble for their own festival, circling around to watch the performance of a troupe of acrobats. The gather dolls seem to come alive, interacting with each other, taking on human characteristics, and appearing to express their delight in the performance. A childlike tendency to humanize these playthings is common in Baumann's prints of dolls and toys and reflects something of the artist's character. "
Source: Guatave Baumann Nearer to Art
Gustave Baumann (1881 - 1971)
Pines-Grand Canon (Grand Canyon), 1921
Woodblock print
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches
Retail Price $17,500
Paul Landacre (1893-1963)
Desert Storm
Woodblock Print
4 x 6 inches
Retail Price $6,000
Biography
Paul Landacre, printmaker and illustrator, was born in Columbus, Ohio and attended Ohio State University until he was suddenly crippled by the onset of a debilitating illness. In 1916, he moved to Chula Vista, California to recover from his illness, living with his newly remarried father. During his long convalescence, Landacre roamed the hillsides and found solace in drawing the landscape and soon purchased his first blocks of linoleum. By 1922, he had moved to Los Angeles to attend classes at the Otis Art Institute. Wood engraving was not part of the curriculum, and Landacre was self-taught in this art form.
He worked as a commerical illustrator, married Margaret McCreery in 1925, and with the support of his wife, devoted himself to wood engraving in 1926. His first solo exhibition was at the Blanding Sloan Workshop Gallery in San Francisco in 1929, and an exhibition the following year at Zeitlin's bookshop in Los Angeles was the genesis of a long and rewarding relationship between the artist and Jake Zeitlin.
Landacre became the pre-eminent American woodengraver, an honor bestowed by Rockwell Kent as well as Carl Zigrosser. His woodengravings are brillant in their composition, style, and stark contrasts and his mastery of the medium led to his election to the National Academy of Design in 1946. He illustrated award-winning books of poems for Ward Ritchie and Alexander Dumas' A Gil Blas in California.
His first solo book, California Hills and other Woodengravings of 1931 won Fifty Books of the Year. Landacre taught woodengraving at the University of Southern California, Otis Art Institute and the Kahn Institute and held memberships in the California Society of Etchers, California Print Makers Society, American Society of Wood Engravers, and the American Society of Etchers, Gravers, Lithographers and Woodcutters.
His woodengravings were included in numerous exhibitions, including the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, and are illustrated in numerous books on woodengraving and American printmaking.
Repositories of his work include the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Library of Congress; Los Angeles Public Library; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Oakland Museum; New York Public Library; Philadelphia Museum; San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts; and the Seattle Museum.
Source:Askart
W.H. Shurtleff (1886 - 1972)
The Hill Path, c. 1935
Woodblock print
5 x 7 inches
Retail Price $250
Hiroshi Yoshida (1876 - 1950)
Grand Canyon, The United States Series, First Edition - Earliest State, 1925
10 1/4 x 15 5/8 inches
Woodblock print
Publisher: artist
Color earliest "red"
Signature:
Jizurk seal in upper left margin
brush signed & sealed by the artist
pencil titled & signed in the bottom margi
Retail Price $12,000
A romantic realist, Yoshida’s style resembles that of an English 19th Century watercolorist applied to Japanese themes. Yoshida is noted for subtle colors and naturalistic atmosphere. This stunning print captures the stark contrasts of light and shadow, red rock and white snow of the Grand Canyon in winter solitude.
Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950)
Chikugo River, 1927
Woodblock Print
16 x 10.75 inches
First Edition
Retail Price $2,500
Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950)
The Acropolis Ruins - Day, 1925
Woodblock Print
10.75 x 16 inches
Retail Price $2,500
Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950)
Spring in a Hot Spring
Woodblock print
10 3/8 x 16 inches
Retail Price $1,000
Kawase Hasui (1883 - 1957)
Umagome no tsuki (Moon at Umagome) Showa era (1926-1989), 1930
woodblock print
15.5 x 10.375 inches
signed "Hasui"
Retail Price $4,000
An oban tate-e print of Umagome no tsuki (Moon at Umagome), from the series Tokyo nijukei (20 Views of Tokyo), dated 1930, with publisher cartouche of Watanabe Shozaburo
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
Amagasaki, 1940
Woodblock Print
Retail Price $750
Evening scene at Amagasaki in Daimotsu Bay.
Biography
Hasui Kawase is one of the best known artists of the "Shin Hanga" (new prints) movement. His prints, landscapes and townviews, were created in traditional Japanese style with Western elements. Hasui had a very close cooperation with the publisher Watanabe. In the fires following the devastating earthquake in 1923, over a hundred blocks produced so far, were destroyed. In 1956, one year before his death, the artist was declared a Living National Treasure.
SIGNATURE
Signed Hasui, artist seal, SUI, publisher Watanab
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
Cloudy Day at Mizuki in Ibaragi
10.25 x 14.125 inches
Woodblock Print
Retail Price $950
Torii Kotondo
Nagajuban (Long Undergarment), c. 1929
Woodblock Print
18.5 x 11.88 inches
Retail Price $1,750
A dai oban print embossed on the lower margin, dated Showa yonen shichigatsu (Showa 4 [1929], 7th month), signed Kotondo ga, sealed Torii, lower left with embossed publisher seal Sakai-Kawaguchi go ban (Sakai Kawaguchi, joint publication), reverse with hand-numbered limited edition paper label Gaikoku-yuki ni-hyaku-mai kagiri zeppan, dai yonjuni-go, Torii Kotondo (for foreign export, limited edition of 200 printed, number 42, by Torii Kotondo)
Biography
Torii Kotondo (1900-1976) was born in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. He changed his artist's name four times, using Kotondo, Masahiko, Kiyonobu and Kiyotada V, the eighth master of the Torii school. Studied the style and technique of Kabuki billboard painting of the Torii School under his father Kiyotada IV, the seventh master of the Torii School, yamato-e under Kobori Tomone, and bijinga under Kaburaki Kiyokata. At the age of fifiteen, he began illustrating Engeki Gaho ('Theatrical Illustrated Magazine') under the artist name of Kotondo. In 1929, he succeeded his father and became the eighth heir to the school. From around this time until 1935 he concentrated on prints of Showa beauties which were published by Sakai/Kawaguchi and Ikeda. Additionally he produced many bijinga paintings using the name Kotondo. One of his paintings was accepted into the Nitten exhibition of 1952. Worked as an art director for the theatres and as an art consultant for television. He taught theatrical art classes at the Nihon University.
Torii Kotondo (or Torii Kiyotada VIII) is renowned for his paintings and shin hanga prints of beautiful women. His woodblock prints, superbly carved and printed, are comparable with those of Hashiguchi Goyo and Ito Shinsui. Kotondo was born with the name Saito Akira in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo..
Shinsui Ito
Soshun no Yoshida ( Early Spring in Yoshida), c. 1938
woodblock print
10.75 x 15.75 inches
signed and sealed Shinsui
Retail Price $1,000
An oban yoko-e print of Soshun no Yoshida (Early Spring in Yoshida), from the series Izu hakkei no uchi (Eight Views of Izu), of fields with Mount Fuji in the distance, publisher Watanabe Shozaburo seal (G: 1942-45), printer Ono Gintaro;
Biography
Ito Shinsui was one of the greatest artists of the shin hanga or new print movement in 20th century Japan. Shinsui studied with the ukiyo-e printmaker Kiyokata. At the age of eighteen, the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo approached Shinsui about doing woodblock designs for his company after seeing the young artist's paintings on exhibit. Shinsui created prints for Watanabe from 1916 to 1960, earning great esteem for his sensual, expressive bijin-ga, or pictures of beautiful women. In 1952, the government of Japan declared Shinsui's talents an Intangible National Treasure, and in 1970, he received the Order of the Rising Sun. Today his elegant yet modern images of beauties are highly prized by collectors.
Source: Fuji Arts
Kiyoshi Saito (1907 - 1997)
Garden Tenryuji Kyoto, 11/80 1950
Sosaku woodblock print
28.2 x 21.5 inches
Retail Price $3,000
Biography
Kiyoshi Saito has been one of the best known modern Japanese artists in the Western world. He had started with a sign and billboard painting business before he went to Tokyo in the 1930s to study Western style painting.
In the late 1930s and the 1940s, Kiyoshi Saito began to work seriously in woodblock printing technique. His prime time came after world war II, when he won prizes at the International print exhibitions in Sao Paulo and Ljubljana. From the 1950s on, the artist exhibited and lived in the U.S.A. and in Europe.
Saito's works are remarkable with their well balanced, tight compositions and subdued colors in harmony. His works often evoke the Zen simplicity mixed with the modern, abstract designs.
Source: Artelino
Kiyoshi Saito (1907-1997)
Toriemoto Kyoto, 1967
Woodblock Print
29 x 23 inches
33/100
Retail Price $400
Collections including:
Cincinnati Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, San Francisco; New York Public Library; Art Institute of Chicago; Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art; Kanagawa Prefectural Museum.
Umetaro Azechi (1902 - 1999)
Recollections of Tokyo - Sengaku Temple, 1945
Woodblock Print
7.80 x 10.35 inches
Retail Price $600
Description
From the series "Tokyo Kaiko Zue" (Recollection of Tokyo), with all together 15 designs by various famous Sosaku Hanga artists. This image depicts Sengaku-ji Temple, the graveyard of the 47 Ronin.
Biography
A farm boy from Ehime on the island of Shikoku, Azechi endured years of failure and impoverishment before winning recognition for his prints. Azechi joined the circle of print artists who formed around Hiratsuka Un'ichi and began to make woodblock prints with Hiratsuka's encouragement.
Azechi developed his own expressive technique, using a flat, straight-end chisel to scrape the edge of a line, leaving it both soft and coarse. His love of mountaineering inspired subject matter that was deliberately rough, stark, and richly colored. Azechi was invited to participate in the Lost Tokyo series issued by leading Creative Print artists in 1949. Source: Askart
Signature
Artist's seal (Ume)
Senpan Maekawa (1888-1960)
Nagoya Castle, 1937
Woodblock Print
13hx 9.50 inches
Retail Price $600
Biography
Maekawa Senpan was born as the son of a shopkeeper family in Kyoto. He studied art and took a job as a cartoonist for a satirical magazine. Later he had even a cartoon series of his own in a Sunday newspaper about a clumsy bear. Maekawa Senpan made his first print in Sosaku Hanga style in 1919. After the end of the Pacific war he became famous with prints in cheerful colors showing customs and festivities of the common people in the countryside.
Sekino Jun'ichiro (1914-1988)
Blue Roof Tops
27.375 x 18.375 inches
Woodblock Print
Retail Price $1,950
Biography
Junichiro Sekino, a painter, graphic designer and a woodblock* print maker was one of the noted artists of the Sosaku Hanga* movement, an important current of Japanese art.
Sekino was stylistically and technically diverse: he easily switched from figurative to abstract art, from black and white compositions to colourful expression. He was also flexible with subjects. Sekino sometimes resorted to mixing Western and Japanese techniques in his works.
He grew up in Aomori City alongside Shiko Munakata, the future 'Japanese Picasso', studying printmaking and oil painting. 1936 brought him a Bunten award for his etching*, awarded by the government. In 1939 he moved to the capital, where he came across the Sosaku Hanga movement and studied under one of its fathers: Koshiro Onchi. He kept a dual direction of his studies: traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques as well as Western ones, modeling himself on the great artists of Japan and West.
During the war Sekino worked in a factory producing ammunition, as artistic life in Japan in those harsh years had literally reached a standstill. After the war, Sekino struggled to survive producing book illustrations. The 1950's were a better time for Sekino, and he launched his first show in Tokyo in 1953.
His works were also exhibited outside Japan and bought internationally by such European and American entities as the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York and The Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1958 he received an invitation from the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Japan Society. From then on Sekino traveled and taught around the world. From 1965 he held a position at Kobe University." Source: Askart
