Forum > Tatsuo Kawashima - born 1939

Home in the Spring

By Tasuo Kawashima

Sato no Haru

Tatsuo Kawashima stands for the best qualities in the long history of printmaking in Kyoto, Japan. His technical perfection is the result of an excellent and profound training, and a greater emphasis on tradition towards subjects and techniques. Tatsuo Kawashima had learned the art of printmaking as a carver for ukiyo-e reproductions at Kyoto publisher Uchida Arts, before he started to create his own woodblock prints in 1980.

First Publication: April 2005
Latest Update: May 2013

Biography

• 1939 - born in Kyoto, Japan.
• 1950-1979 - Tatsuo Kawashima acquired the skills of carving and printing woodblock prints at Uchida Arts, Kyoto. He worked as a carver making reproductions of ukiyo-e. But he became also familiar with printing.
• 1963-1965 - Kawashima begins to exhibit works in "independent" exhibitions.
• 1979 - He became instructor at a woodblock class.
• 1980 - Kawashima is now a "serious" artist, and creates his own original woodblock prints.
• 1984 - He goes to New York, U.S.A., where he introduces the woodblock printmaking techniques.
• 1990 - Kawashima works with the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Since 1973, Hundertwasser had published several albums with Japanese woodblock prints that had been carved and printed by Japanese artisans.
• 1999 - One-man show at Hendricks Art Collection, Ltd., Bethesda, MD, U.S.A.

Autumn in Kyoto

By Tatsuo Kawashima

Tatsuo Kawashima is one of those Japanese printmakers who are pretty popular in Japan, but not (yet) as much known outside their homeland. In the United States, Kawashima is represented by Hendricks Art Collection. This gallery is specialized in contemporary Japanese prints and represents among others also the works by Tadashi Nakayama. Hendricks Art Collection writes about Tatsuo Kawashima:

"We predict that his work will be in a number of museums in the near future and the number of his collectors will increase substantially."

We at artelino think that Tatsuo Kawashima's print works are on a level of excellence that assures a long-time appreciation. Collectors of Japanese art prints should take a closer look at the woodblocks by this artist. Prices are on a reasonable level.

Prints by Tatsuo Kawashima

Hokuraku in Kyoto

By Tatsuo Kawashima

Kawashima takes his favorite subjects from his hometown Kyoto and even more from its rural surrounding area. Villages and old farm houses at different seasons are his favorite motifs.

Many of today's printmakers in Japan concentrate on these subjects since the 1950s - probably expression of a deep-routed nostalgia for the past and for the countryside among the Japanese people. Many of the contemporary Japanese printmakers live in the rural areas near Kyoto.

To our knowledge the artist works exclusively in the traditional woodblock technique that he had learned from scratch at Uchida Art. The edition sizes of his works vary from 100 to 250. Due to his popularity in Japan, the more recent works usually have an edition size of at least 200. All prints that we have seen by the artist so far, have been signed and numbered, but not dated.

One of the artist's specialities is the depiction of snow landscapes. On some images the viewer has the impression of a landscape or village suffocating in snow. What looks so simple and easy, requires a profound mastership to depict the effects of light by using gradations between light and dark areas. To create this effect, the woodblock is definitely not the easiest medium.

The gradtion effect creates for the viewer the impression of a three-dimensional image. The technique of gradation has been known among Japanese printmakers since at least the 19th century - see the prints by Hiroshige. But this kind of gradation, called bokashi in Japanese, had not been used to create a more three-dimensional view until shin hanga artists like Kawase Hasui or Hiroshi Yoshida made use of it - probably influenced by French impressionism.

More about Tatsuo Kawashima

7 sold object(s) by Tatsuo Kawashima born 1939 in our Art Archive

2 signature(s) by Tatsuo Kawashima in our Signature Database

Author: Dieter Wanczura
.. more about Dieter Wanczura

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