User:Kyosuke Kawachi/sandbox

Seiko Kawachi

Seiko Kawachi (河内成幸, Seiko Kawachi, born 20 September 1948) is a contemporary artist, printmaker.

He is widely considered to be Japan’s most important living print-artist and one of the most successful contemporary print artists in the world.

The technique he developed for large-scale woodblock prints is what he calls "convex and concave printing." This involves filling the engraved lines like copperplate with paint and pressing hard to print out the engraved lines, a technique that had already been partially used by his senior artist, Ogiwara Hideo. He created modern woodblock prints that feature the dynamic lines of this intaglio printing technique, and furthermore, by applying varnish to the plate surface, he shows off the texture of the paint, such as light and shade and dripping.

Career

 * 1948 Born in Uenohara-cho, Kitatsuru-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture (now Uenohara City)
 * 1966 Graduated from Yamanashi Prefectural Tsuru High School
 * 1969 Enrolled in the Oil Painting Department at Tama Art University
 * 1973 Graduated from Tama Art University, Department of Oil Painting
 * 1985 Studied at Columbia University Graduate School in New York under the Agency for Cultural Affairs' overseas training program for artists
 * 1988 Commissioned seven prints by the Nobel Foundation
 * 1994 Krakow International Print Triennial (Poland)

Awards

 * 1970 38th Japan Print Association Exhibition 
 * 1976 44th Japan Print Association Exhibition 
 * 1978
 * 12th Japan International Art Exhibition 
 * 2nd Japan Contemporary Print Grand Prize Exhibition 
 * 1979
 * 10th Print Grand Prix Exhibition 
 * 8th Grenchen International Color Print Triennial Invitational Exhibition (Switzerland)
 * 1982
 * Invited to the 6th Norwegian International Print Biennale (Top Prize)
 * Invited to the 3rd Listowel International Print Biennale (Excellent Prize) (Canada)
 * 1983 Invited to the 4th California International Print Exhibition (Top Prize)
 * 1984 Invited to the 1st Yamanashi Prefecture New Artist Selection Exhibition (Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art Award)
 * 1985 1st Wakayama Prefecture Print Biennale Exhibition (Excellent Award) (Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Art)
 * 1987 2nd Wakayama Print Biennale Exhibition (Honorable Mention Award)
 * 1988 Commissioned to create 7 prints by the Nobel Foundation, awarded a gold medal (Contribution Award)
 * 1989 18th Ljubljana International Print Biennial Exhibition (Klagenfurt Prize) (former Yugoslavia/Slovenia)
 * 1990
 * Invited to the Biella International Print Exhibition (Italy)
 * 1st Kochi International Print Triennial Exhibition (Honorable Mention Award) (Inno Town Paper Museum/Kochi)
 * 1991 Osaka International Print Triennale 1991 Exhibition 
 * 1992 3rd Tama Grand Prize Exhibition 
 * 1993 2nd Kochi International Print Triennale Exhibition 
 * 1996 3rd Sapporo International Contemporary Print Biennale Exhibition 
 * 1997 Invitation to the International Print Exhibition '97  (Portland Art Museum, Oregon)
 * 2003
 * Beijing International Print Exhibition 
 * Global International Art Contribution Award  (China)*2011 Purple Ribbon Medal
 * 2011 Purple Ribbon Medal
 * 2012 1st Novosibirsk International Print Triennial Exhibition  (Russia)
 * 2014 Dark Blue Ribbon Medal
 * 2020 Taiwan International Miniature Print Exhibition 2020 

Person
Kawachi started printmaking at the prep school he attended while he was a ronin. At the prep school, he met printmakers such as Yoshida Hodaka, Matsumoto Min, and Yamanobe Yoshio.

In 1969, at the height of the university protests, he entered the oil painting department at Tama Art University. There, he received instruction in copperplate printing from Komai Tetsuro. In 1970, he won the New Artist Award at the Japan Print Association Exhibition for a work in which he silkscreened an image of a skeleton on a stainless steel plate. The skeleton was an image of Kawachi's own "death" during his depressed ronin days, and coincidentally, the same year Mishima Yukio committed seppuku.

In 1971, he began making woodblock prints, almost entirely on his own. The motifs of the images are noted in Kawachi's woodblock prints. Kawachi believed that a "framework of thought" was more important than anything else in the expression of his work.

The technique Kawachi developed for large-scale woodblock prints is what he calls "convex and concave printing." This technique is done by filling the engraved lines with paint like copperplate prints and pressing hard to print the engraved lines. The technique itself had already been partially used by senior artist Hideo Ogiwara. Kawauchi created modern woodblock prints that use the dynamic lines of this intaglio printing as the main focus, and then apply varnish to the plate to show the paint's shading and dripping texture.

In 1985, he studied at Columbia University Graduate School as an overseas artist trainee for the Agency for Cultural Affairs for one year. After returning to Japan, Kawauchi's style changed significantly. The first thing that catches your eye is the series "The Flying," in which a white leghorn chicken flies across the screen. When asked why he made a chicken, a bird that cannot fly, fly, he said, "The chicken is a self-portrait." It is a reflection of his own image of himself trying to fly in a stagnant social situation where postwar education is raising salarymen who will be responsible for economic growth.

Furthermore, an image quoted from Hokusai's "Waves" began to be used as the background for the flying chicken. This image of waves symbolizes Japan itself. And Fuji, a motif that has been frequently depicted since 2000, also exists as an emblem mark of Japan. When Kawachi returned to Japan from overseas training, for some reason the plane was unable to land and continued to circle Mount Fuji, and for some reason the view of Mount Fuji that he saw at that time brought him to tears.

Kawachi, who decided to face Mount Fuji after turning 60, has set his sights on Hokusai, who also created Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji after turning 60, and is showing his enthusiasm to carry on the tradition of Japanese woodblock prints as an artist, rather than as a divided artist, carver, and printer.

Unique woodblock printing technique
"His technique is to draw a rough outline on a piece of plywood, apply clear lacquer to the areas to be brightened, and after engraving, apply a mixture of ink and glue to the plate, squeeze the flat areas with a silk squeegee, and print with a woodblock press. This ink block is then transferred and the color blocks are engraved, all of which are printed with a baren, and finally the first ink block process is added, giving the work a sharpness and strength not found in traditional woodblock printing. A promising artist who develops innovative images of emotion and thought through original woodblock intaglio printing."

Kawachi Shigeyuki's original and complex intaglio printing is literally unconventional and unmatched by anyone else.

Public Collections
Iwaki City Museum of Art, Ome City Museum of Art, Osaka Prefectural Contemporary Art Center, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Kurobe City Museum of Art, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Sunpark Museum of Art, Shimonoseki City Museum of Art, Takasaki City Museum of Art, Tama City, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, Toyama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Metropolitan Denenchofu High School, Niigata Prefectural Art Museum, Hamamatsu City Museum of Art, Higashihiroshima City Museum of Art, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Machida City Museum of Prints, Minami Alps Municipal Museum of Art, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yonago City Museum of Art, Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Alontiga Granaditas Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, British Museum, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, Scobie Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Norway, Bradford Museum, Bulgarian National Museum, Portland Art Museum