Tajima, Hiroyuki (1911 - 1984 )
Hiroyuki Tajima is a 20th century printmaker. Exploring rich colors and entrancing textures, Tajima’s abstract woodblock prints express a freedom and imagination. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes deeply sensitive, sometimes powerful, these abstract woodblock prints have the ability to emotionally move the viewer through innovative technique, luminous gold, and saturated, textured planes of color. His work is renowned as some of the most significant abstract art of the postwar period.
Born in Tokyo in 1911, Hiroyuki Tajima graduated from Nihon University in 1932. He continued his studies at Tokyo School of Fine Arts, graduating from the Western-style painting division in 1934. He also studied woodblock printing with Yoshio Nagase and fabric dyeing under Matsugoro Hirokawa during this time. Tajima made his first print in 1946 and joined Bijutsu Bunka Kyokai that same year. This organization was instrumental in the revitalization of abstract printing and surrealist painting in the wake of World War II. Between 1950 and 1952, Hiroyuki Tajima took a break from printmaking to write short stories and poetry. He returned to printmaking in the 1960s, participating in international exhibitions and exploring unlikely materials and complex textures in his abstract prints.
Contemporary Japanese and East Asian Art
Ronin Gallery’s Contemporary art collection challenges the boundaries of tradition and innovation through the work of Japan's greatest contemporary artists and tomorrow’s most promising talents. Featured in museum exhibitions worldwide, contemporary Japanese and East Asian artists are pushing limits and exploring fresh techniques across mediums and styles. For many of the contemporary artists in this collection, inspiration sparks from an interweaving of old with new. Many combine traditional themes, tools, or materials with technology, contemporary themes, or innovative techniques. This hybrid expression is distinctly contemporary and unremittingly vital. From the Pop art legacy of the Shinohara’s to the foremost master of Japanese tattooing, Horiyoshi III, this collection of contemporary Japanese and East Asian art spans a wide range of media, including woodblock prints, screen prints, photography, etchings, paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, ceramics, and mixed media artworks.
