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.
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.
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