Title : Image No.6 Motherhood (1)

Artist : Onchi Koshiro

Date : 1950

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : Influenced by the poet and illustrator Takehisa Yumeji (1883-1934), Onchi studied oil painting and sculpture at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He later became interested in abstract prints and established the print and poetry magazine Tsukubae (1914-1915). In 1919, Onchi participated in the first Sösaku Hanga Kyökai (Society of Creative Prints) exhibition founded by Yamamoto Kanae. From 1939 through World War II and after, he maintained Ichimokukai (Society of First Thursdays), a monthly meeting of hanga (creative print) artists that including Sekino Jun’ichirö (1914-1988), one of the most influential figures in the Creative Print Movement. In stark contrast to the other Onchi print in this gallery, this abstract image dominated by bright colors—sunny yellow, a blue egg shape, and other amoeba-like morphological forms presents feelings of hope, birth, maternal love, and the warmth of a mother’s womb. This brings us to the very basis of Onchi’s artistic style, defined by Sawatari Kiyoko, curator at the Yokohama Museum of Modern Art, as “Poetry in praise of a life with hope.” Hiratsuka, as Helen Merritt writes, was the creative print movement’s “practical teacher, mentor, and grassroots leader.” An early practitioner of sösaku hanga, Hiratsuka moved to Tokyo from northern Honshu to study Western-style watercolor painting and went on to become a magazine illustrator, print artist, and teacher. He influenced the work of many significant print artists who studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts during the postwar period, and his own works became highly coveted by American collectors. He spent the last thirty years of his life living in the United States and in 1977 was recognized for his outstanding cultural contribution.

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