Kurosaki Akira 黒崎彰 (January 10, 1937-May 14, 2019)

PROFILE

A major figure in modern mokuhanga (woodblock prints using water-based inks), Kurosaki developed an interest in ukiyo-e prints and techniques while in college, taking pleasure in late-period Edo and Meiji period works, struck by their intense colors. He produced his first woodblock prints in 1965 and would go on to also work in silkscreen, collagraph and mixed media, creating works which express "contemporary ideas while respecting traditional Japanese materials and methods."[1]  His work, mostly abstract or semi-representational, was shown in major domestic and international exhibitions, winning numerous awards including the 1st Florence International Print Biennale Gold Award and the World Print Award for Contemporary Masters and World Print Awards (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).  He became an authority on both Japanese and Korean paper, conducted extensive research on prints and authored a variety of articles and books on printmaking. He taught throughout his career, culminating in being made professor emeritus at Kyoto Seika University. Beginning in the late 1970s Akira worked as visiting professor and artist-in-residence at various universities in the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2008 he received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class by the emperor. His work is in the collections of the British Museum, Museum of Modern Art New York, and Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art, among many others.

[1] Continuum, Pyramid Atlantic, Innovative Prints From 1992-2007, Katherine L. Blood, Pyramid Atlantic Gallery

His father working for the Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd., Akira was born in Dalian, Japanese-occupied Manchuria in 1937, but returned to Japan with his mother in 1938 to live with relatives in the port town of Kobe. Due to air raids, he was relocated to Ishiyama in Ōmi Province (current day Shiga Prefecture) and he would maintain a deep affection for this area (see Eight Views of Ōmi below.) After the war, while still a junior high school student, his father arranged for him to study drawing and painting with Itō Tsugurō 伊藤継郎 (1907-1994), a Western-style artist. However, his father did not encourage him to be a painter as he felt it would not provide an adequate living. Despite his father's advice, in 1956 Kurosaki entered the Kyoto Institute of Technology where he studied in the Department of Design, receiving his B.A. degree in 1962. During his formal studies Akira felt constrained by his teachers and the art education he was receiving and upon graduation sought out a broader understanding of art, one closer to his passions - "the endless attraction he felt to the works of Gauguin, Munch and James Ensor."[1]  Domestically, he found himself particularly drawn to the nihonga (Japanese-style) painter Kagaku Murakami 村上華岳 (1888-1939) famous for his Buddhist works and Ryūsei Kishida 岸田劉生 (1891-1929), a Western-style oil painter best known for his portraiture. 

Beginning in his college days, Akira developed a love and respect for traditional woodblock prints in the forms of ukiyo-e, nishiki-e (multi-colored prints) and ezōshi (woodblock printed illustrated books), later writing that he was "struck by their irresistible attraction" and exulted "in the tension of cooperative creation." [2]  

Akira would then set a course to create woodblock prints, visiting traditional carvers and printers to learn the craft and, in 1965, he would create his first woodblock prints, focusing on religious themes, having recently converted to Catholicism after a bout with tuberculosis and befriending "a French priest living in Kobe who loved art."[3]

Though traditional in technique, he set his goal "to re-animate their [traditional woodblock prints] style in modern form through strong color contrasts and radical compositions."[4] In the artist's words, "I combine shapes and aspects to create a world reminiscent to that found in ukiyo-e prints" and his favorite shapes originated from his own imagination.[5]

[1] Akira Kurosaki Woodblock Prints, 1965-1983, Hideo Tomiyama and Akira Kurosaki, Shirota Gallery November, 1984, p. 16.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid, p. 15.

[5] The Complete Works of Akira Kurosaki: Catalogue Raisonne: Woodcuts & Paper Works 1965-2006 黒崎彰の全仕事. Tokyo, Abe Shuppan, 2006.

International Experience

Note: compiled primarily from Hideo Tomiyama's forward to  Akira Kurosaki Woodblock Prints 1965-1983, Shirota Gallery, 1984, p. 15-19 and an interview with the artist appearing in The Complete Works of Akira Kurosaki: Catalogue Raisonne: Woodcuts & Paper Works 1965-2006 黒崎彰の全仕事. Tokyo, Abe Shuppan, 2006.  Quoted material is separately footnoted.

In his forward to the first major publication of Akira's work, Akira Kurosaki Woodblock Prints, 1965-1983, Hideo Tomiyama, Deputy Director of The Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, credits Akira's 1970 series Red Darkness with launching his international career. Prints in this series used up to 8 blocks, 15 colors and were printed as many as 70 times.

Akira maintained a busy international schedule for much of his career, starting in 1973 when he received an international travel grant from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, which he spent studying printmaking techniques, including woodcut, at Harvard University, Hamburg's Hochshule fur Bildende Kunts and other institutions. Upon his return he produced the ten print portfolio America (see "Sampling of the Artist's Work Over the Decades" above) which made use of zinc relief photo blocks, a technique learned during his travels. In the summer of 1979, under the sponsorship of the Japan Art and Culture Association, he entered works in the Exhibition of Modern Japanese Art in Beijing, spending several weeks visiting Beijing, Harbin, and Shanghai as a member of the Japanese delegation. This trip was the impetus for the ten print portfolio China. (See this collection's print IHL Cat. #2032 Hello, Ms. Mao.)

In 1983 he would return to Harvard to teach woodblock printing, commuting between Cambridge and Kyoto. In 1992, he was invited by the Munch Museum to conduct research on the Japanese paper Munch printed on. Almost every year would find him teaching or lecturing at an overseas location or taking up an overseas artist residency as he did in 1996 at the Tamarind Institute, creating a series of lithographs (see Comb in Yellow above.) His work would appear in over 150 overseas exhibitions during the course of his career and he would serve on numerous international juries and committees. He credits his English speaking ability with easing his way into the international art scene.