Artist original Ansei Uchima fine art woodblock print “Winter Vista” #113/210, dated 1965. Ansei Uchima born 1921 died 2000. Sublime atmospheric Modernist fine art print. East meets West, Conservative Tradition dovetails with Mid Century Modern abstract expressionism. Highly regarded and collected American born Master artist. Born 1921 in Stockton, California. Childhood in Los Angeles. Moved to Tokyo, Japan to study Architecture at Waseda University just before WWII. When Japan entered World War II one year later, Uchima was cut off from home. He soon gravitated to the study of painting, which he pursued under the tutelage of Japanese masters and later on his own. His paintings won awards at the Jiyo Bijutsu Art Association annual exhibitions in 1953 and 1954. Uchima began to experiment with printmaking in Japan in 1957, and his work was immediately successful with collectors in Japan and abroad. That same year he shared an exhibition at the Yoseido Gallery in Tokyo with the sculptor Masayuki Nagare and showed his woodcuts in the Tokyo International Print Triennials in 1957 and 1960. After twenty years of teaching, he was named professor emeritus in 1988. In 1967 he became an adjunct professor of printmaking at Columbia University. Besides having over forty one-person exhibitions in the United States and Japan, he has also been included in numerous group exhibitions worldwide. Printed on handmade paper by Japanese National Treasure artist Ichibei Iwano. See thorough Ansei Uchima Biography on www dot myjapanesehanga dot com website for The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints. Similar print, same title, in collection of the Smithsonian Institute of American Art, Google Smithsonian collection website. Many major museum collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art NY, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Whitney Museum of American Art, and so on. “As Is” “As Found” framed, not examined out of frame, wrinkle to handmade paper lower center right, examine all photos with magnifier feature for condition. Frame has chips to finish overall, especially edges of frame. Faces up OK, though could be reframed. Not sure if archival materials used in framing, not examined out of frame. Seems good or better condition. Way for Hakone, 1960 I. By The Lake, 1961. Conversation of the Winds , 1961. Photo of artist (undated). The work of Ansei Uchima reflects a complex fusion of Western and Eastern artistic traditions. Through his job as translator for Oliver Statler, an American print collector, who was interviewing artists for a book on contemporary Japanese prints, he was introduced to the sosaku hanga. (creative print) movement, which incorporated a Western modernist aesthetic. Like other artists in the sosaku hanga. School, Uchima carved, inked, and printed his own wood blocks, enjoying the accidents and unexpected opportunities that arose spontaneously from interaction with the wood block. His first prints, beginning in 1957, drew from nature and the world around him. Suggested the growing influence of Abstract Expressionism. Uchima used Japanese paper made especially for him by a Japanese master papermaker and National Treasure, Ichibei Iwano. Also seen as and. 177-178 Ansei Uchima Born 1921, Stockton, California; lives in New York, New York Uchima, the son of Japanese immigrants, grew up in Los Angeles. In 1940, in accordance with his fathers wishes, he went to Tokyo to study architecture at Waseda University. Uchima studied painting in oils, but since his involvement with the traditional woodblock method of ukiyo-e while he was in Japan, using sumi and tube watercolors, he has mainly worked in woodblock printing. Due to certain circumstances of the artists life, in particular his long residence in Japan during his artistic formative years, Uchimas oeuvre represents an especially coherent example of the direct interaction of modern printmaking aesthetics in Japan and the United States. Friendship with Oliver Statler. Source: “Onchi Koshiro – Thoughts and Second Thoughts, ” Oliver Statler, Prints of Onchi Koshiro , Keishosha Ltd. Uchima was at my side during all the interviews that went into making of my book Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn. Uchima had a long relationship with Oliver Statler, who had a major role in promoting and supporting Japanese artists and their prints after WWII. Ephemera from Statler’s life, including cards and letters from Uchima to Statler can be found at the website of th. Is a print very similar in feel to the print in this collection Way for Hakone. The revelatory nature of Zen thought is implied in his print Katsu! Titled after the shout of Zen monks as they urge their students to spiritual discovery. It is spontaneous in its own right, with a conglomeration of irregular forms pressed swiftly against the paper. Source: Article of May 11, 2000, New York Times UCHIMA-Ansei. On May 9, 2000, at age 79. Beloved husband of Toshiko, devoted father of Anju and Yoko, proud grandfather of Maya and Lenn, dear brother of Ansho and the late Kei, and Franklin. Esteemed woodblock print artist, painter and Fine Arts Professor. Emeritus Faculty Member at Sarah Lawrence College, where he taught from 1962 to 1982; taught also at Columbia University from 1968 to 1982. Recipient of Guggenheim Fellowships in 1962 and 1970. Work belongs to Permanent Collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Gallery of Art, among many others. He was respected and cherished by all who knew him, and will be remembered in his exquisite, harmonic and vibrant prints and paintings. The item “Ansei Uchima woodblock American Japanese Master Winter Vista shop Studio TORNO” is in sale since Sunday, February 07, 2016. This item is in the category “Art\Art Prints”. The seller is “ucityxl” and is located in Saint Louis, Missouri. This item can be shipped to United States, Japan.
- Original/Reproduction: Original Print
- Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
- Signed: Signed
- Edition Type: Limited Edition
- Edition Size: 210
- Print Type: Woodcut Woodblock
- Subject: Landscape
- Style: Abstract
- Size Type/Largest Dimension: Medium (Up to 30in.)
- Date of Creation: 1950-1969
