Uchima Ansei ― Forest Byobu

Schedule: May. 17 [Fri.] - June. 1 [Sat.] 2024 11:00 - 19:00
※Gallery closed Sun., Mon., and national holidays.

*Click images to view in original size

Uchima Ansei (1921-2000) was born in the United States and studied at Waseda University in 1940. After the war, he was inspired by the Sosaku-hanga of Onchi Koshiro and others and began making woodblock prints. He deepened the traditional Ukiyo-e technique and established his original technique called "weaves of colors," and produced a series of "Forest Byobu" prints, which were printed over 45 times.
Uchima's woodblock prints have a complex composition with layers and layers of vividly harmonized and subtly blurred color surfaces, and despite their many colors, the entire image has a quiet elegance.
In this exhibition, woodblock prints, oil paintings, and copperplate prints will be shown, and an exhibition catalog including representative works will be published (1,000 yen plus tax).
*The Aizu Museum at Waseda University will hold an exhibition "Japanese Artists of Postwar New York, Featuring Risaburo Kimura’s Metropolis", and Uchima's works will also be on display.

■Ansei Uchima
Uchima was born 1921 in Stockton, California. In 1940, he went to Tokyo to study architecture at Waseda University. After the war, Uchima met the sosaku hanga artist Onchi Koshiro, and began to venture into abstract woodblock printing. He held his first solo exhibition at Yoseido Gallery (Tokyo) in 1955. In 1960, he relocated to New York, where he received twice a Guggenheim Fellowship for print artists (1962 and 1970). Uchima taught at Sarah Lawrence College, and held a position as an adjunct professor of printmaking at Columbia University. He died in 2000, aged 79.

Uchima, who had his roots both in Japan and the United States, is known to have advanced traditional techniques derived from ukiyo-e printmaking into what he called “weaves of colors.” This approach was used for his series Forest Byobu where he layered 45 color plates to create one print. The vivid colors, delicate gradations and dense layering of these works exude a refined sense of harmony. Uchima’s prints are full of a fresh and modern sensibility, contributing to their lasting appeal. Major collections holding his works are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.

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