About the artist
Yoshitaka Nakao was a 20th-century woodblock print artist of the Sosaku Hanga (creative print) movement. Born in Ehime prefecture, Nakao was largely self-taught, though he studied woodblock printmaking with Umetaro Azechi (1902-1999) for a time. A member of Nihon Hanga Kyokai from 1948, Nakao exhibited his work with Kokugakai from 1949 and became a member in 1960. Following awards in 1949 and 1956, he gained recognition among his fellow print artists. Until 1955, he favored the cement print, where he poured wet concrete into a wooden frame, carved into the surface as it dried, then relief printed from the dry concrete. Though he shifted to oil-based inks and more traditional woodblock print techniques in the following years, Nakao integrated the use of concrete paste to create rich texture in his woodblock prints. In 1960, the Graphic Art Society of New York published his prints on three separate occasions. His work often features abstracted figures depicted in bold, textured blocks of color. Today, Yoshitaka Nakao’s woodblock prints can be found in collections such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.