Inoue, Kozo (1937 - 2017 )
Kozo Inoue was a contemporary Japanese printmaker. Born in Osaka, he graduated from the Department of Art History at Keio University in 1960. During life, he worked during the winter months in the Izu Peninsula and Dordogne or Paris in the summer. He is known for his surrealistic silkscreen prints. His prints can be found in the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Royal Library of Belgium, Modern Museum of Art Osaka and the Spencer Museum of Art, to name just a few.
Sosaku Hanga | Post-WWII Japanese Prints
The Sosaku Hanga or “creative print” movement emerged in the changing Japan of the early 20th century. The movement arose from a central tenant: the artist must participate in every aspect of production. As artists shed the traditional delegation of ukiyo-e production and explored each role themselves, the act of printmaking adopted a more spontaneous, expressive attitude. Artists explored with the knife, chisel, woodblock, and ink to push to the boundaries of their medium. Originally excluded from Japan’s formal art world, Sosaku Hanga began on the pages of magazines. It was not until 1919 that the first Sosaku Hanga exhibition opened in Tokyo. Ranging from figural to abstract, the movement flourished after WWII, and found a new, eager audience among American GIs. In this collection, Ronin Gallery presents masters of Sosaku Hanga such as Onchi, Ono, Munakata, Saito, Sekino, and Mori, as well as other post-war Japanese printmakers.