Maki, Haku (1924 - 2000 )
Haku Maki was an abstract woodblock printmaker active during the second half of the 20th century. Born in Asomachi, Ibaraki prefecture as Tadaaki Maejima, he served in WWII before becoming a high school teacher in 1950. Around this time he began to produce his mixed media-prints. He became a member of the Japan Print Association in 1958 and exhibition his prints at the annual College Women's Association of Japan print show from 1970 forward.
While Haku Maki began his printing process with carving a woodblock, he would the add cement around the carved areas. Once the cement had dried, he would carve over his original lines. This process produced the deep embossing so characteristic of his works. In terms of subject matter, Maki explored abstracted Chinese characters, though he branched out to depictions of ceramics and persimmons later in life. After 1960, he began to add spots of color to his compositions. A master of modern Japanese abstract printmaking, Haku Maki's work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the British Museum.
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.