*** MUSEUM-QUALITY JAPANESE Copper-Plate Color Etching TETSURO KOMAI, circa 1970 ***
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ITEM DESCRIPTION
Item Description
Up for your consideration is a museum-quality color etching by the renowned Japanese print maker Tetsuro Komai (1920 - 1976). This piece is a later work with colors, and was completed in 1970. It is signed lower right. Approximate work size 4" x 4", frame 13 1/2" x 10". The artwork is in excellent condition, free of concerns. There is surface wear to the silver leaf on the wooden frame. Komai's color works are rare, and generally the most valuable. This piece is numbered 5/20, a very small edition size. There are reflections/glare from my photography, the print is primarily black, with a red and green stripe.
About the Artist
Komai Tetsuro (1920-1976), a pioneer of modern copperplate printmaking in Japan, gained renown both at home and abroad for the profound and poetic world envisioned in his prints. In black ink on white paper he expressed a cosmos of endless wandering amid reveries and madness, one that seems all the more fascinating in the current digital era.
While focusing on copperplate prints, Komai also interacted extensively with poets and musicians, and in his works as a member of the cross-disciplinary art group Jikken Kobo (Experimental Workshop) and his illustrations for poetry collections, he reached across boundaries between media and genres. The formation of Komai’s vision was also influenced by his love of Western art and great admiration for Odilon Redon in particular.
The multifaceted nature of the artist and new, unexplored charms of his works are highlighted in this exhibition, which resembles a tapestry where the chronological development of Komai’s work form the warp, and his influences and connections with other artists the weft. One hitherto little-known aspect revealed here: the artist as a colorist, in vibrant color monotypes from the Fukuhara Yoshiharu Collection of the Setagaya Art Museum. A total of about 210 of Komai’s works appear,
The prints that Komai exhibited and selected for portfolios during his lifetime were primarily monochromatic, but while stoic in his allegiance to black and white, the artist also began producing color prints in the 1950s. In the 1970s in particular, he produced many multicolor monotypes, and unexpectedly revealed an extraordinary chromatic sensibility. These works convey his profound affection and esteem for Redon, who in Komai’s words “in his later years created a world of brilliant color in oil paint and pastel,” but also his strong commitment to printmaking in his selection of monotype, which uses a printing plate, as a medium. In this section, enjoy the vibrant resonance of Komai’s color works as well as those of Western artists he loved such as Redon, Klee, Ernst, and Miro.
Up for your consideration is a very fine pair of , c. 1850 - 1880. Gender:
(Late 20th C. Japanese) 2 framed colored etchings, both signed lower right, "Drapeaux et la lune", approximate work size 3 1/2" x 3" 1/2", frame 14 1/2" x 11 1/2", and piece with stripe, strip numbered 5/20, work size 4" x 4", frame 13 1/2" x 10".
Born in Tokyo. Graduated in 1943 from Oil Painting Dept., Tokyo Art School. In 1954 and 1955 studied in Print Dept. of Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Member of Japan Print Society and Shun-yo-kai. In 1951 Komai was awarded a prize at the Sao Paulo Biennial which brought him early recognition. He later taught at the Tokyo College of the Arts and practiced etching almost exclusively, producing editions and illustrations for books. Volk, Alicia. MADE IN JAPAN The Postwar Creative Print Movement. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Milwaukee Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press, 2005, pg. 110. (hgs 9/23/08)
The piece measures 16" tall, 10" wide, and 6" deep. It weighs about 10 lbs.
Overall, the piece is in excellent condition,
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