#American printmakers

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My staff pick this week is the trade edition of The Tale of the Shining Princess by Japanese-born writer Hisako Matsubara (b.1935) and Japanese-Canadian artist-printmaker Naoko Matsubara (b.1937), published by Kodansha International LTD. Tokyo, Japan in 1966. 

As a artist-printmaker and bookmaker who makes woodcuts, I am greatly inspired by Naoko’s prints. Naoko Matsubara’s work carries on traditions of Japanese printmaking while having its own contemporary flavor. Her woodcuts are ecstatic, they are vibrating with movement. Her use of bold shapes and the white line of the the carving tool makes the most of what woodcut has to offer. In the book form, the active images carry the reader’s eyes through the book space. Her use of negative space activates the page. Additionally, her woodcuts have translated beautifully to commercial printing. 

The Matsubara sisters are daughters of a senior Shinto priest, and were raised in Kyoto. Both studied, lived, and worked in the United States. Hisako received her Master of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State College, moving to Germany where she continued her studies and became a prominent writer, publishing her work in Japanese, English, and German. In the 1980s she moved back to the United States, this time to California where she worked at Stanford University. 

Naoko received her Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now Carnegie Mellon University. After her studies she traveled across Europe and Asia. She returned to the United States and became the personal assistant to the artist and wood engraver Fritz Eichenberg, an artist who has been featured many times on our blog. Naoko taught at Pratt University in New York and at the University of Rohde Island. She also lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a time. Naoko is currently living and working in Canada in Oakville, Ontario, where she continues to work and exhibit nationally. 

The work of both Hisako and Naoko have had great influence inside the United States and around the world. So lets celebrate their accomplishments! 

This book has end sheets of mulberry paper with inclusions of Bamboo leaves, the cover is a red textured paper with a gold stamped design by Naoko. 

View some of our other AAPI selections for this month.

View our other Staff Picks.

- Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

#staff pick of the week #The Tale of The Shining Princess #hisako matsubara #naoko matsubara #Japanese artists #Japanese writers #Japan #AAPI Hertitage Month #Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month #AAPI #canadian artists #trade edition #Matsubara #woodcuts #printmaking #color printmaking #fiction #stories #teddy

[internationalemeteorologie]

William H. Hays

Blue Dusk

#william h. hays #art print #printmaking art #surreal landscapes #dusk #contemporary #american artist

[taf-art]

United States of Attica (1971-72). Faith Ringgold.

#faith ringgold #art #female artists #american art #african american art #1970s #printmaking #seen in person #whitney museum #incomplete history of protest

[the-cricket-chirps]

Elizabeth Norton

Chi-Ku

1931

#Elizabeth Norton #american artist #american art #printmaking #prints #dogs of tumblr #dogs in art #dog art #beautiful dogs #beautiful animals #sculptor #women artists #woman artist #art on tumblr #dogblr #modern art #art history #aesthetictumblr #tumblraesthetic #tumblrpic #tumblrpictures #tumblr art #aesthetic #tumblrstyle #beauty

[petalpetal]

Artist I Like Series 

David Weidman 1921 - 2014 an American animator, animation artist and silkscreen print artist known for his mid-century modern works, including posters, prints and ceramics. Weidman began his career in animation as a background artist during the 1950s and 1960s. During his later life, Weidman's silkscreens were featured in the sets of the AMC television series, Mad Men, which revived interest in his work. In 2010, the Los Angeles Times referred to Weidman as possibly "the most famous unknown artist."

#David Weidman #american #printmaking #male artist #20th century #21st century #contemporary art #artist I like #art history #art #fave

[venustriste]

i'm not planning on making more copies of this one bc i'm not happy with how it turned out but hey i'm still learning lol this is my second linocut work so far

#goth #gothic #goth aesthetic #mine #linocarving #linoleum #linocut #linoprint #printmaking #printmaker #art #artist #dolls #dollcore #teeth #vulture culture #creepy #weirdcore #antique doll #american gothic #horror #black ink #ink #female artist #small artist #artists on tumblr #print

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

COMPARTMENT C, CAR 293 (1938) BY EDWARD HOPPER.

#woman #reading #edward hopper #1930s art #compartment c car 239 #travel #travel art #1930s #woman wearing a hat #train travel #american artists #american artist #realism #modern art #printmaker #watercolorist #watercolourist #etching #impressionism #ashcan school

[ein-bleistift-und-radiergummi]

Martin Marootian Still Life Linocut, 1936.

(via museumcoin)

#art #kunst #linolschnitt #linocut #still life #1936 #vintage print #martin marootian artist #block print #american artist #american printmaker #art deco style

[piononostalgia]

Darice Polo

« Seeds of Colonialism »

Silkscreen Prints, 2016

#darice polo #historia puertorriqueña #puerto rico #art #arte #arte latinoamericano #caribbean #latin american art #caribbean art #caribbean artist #caribeño #antilles #antillano #latino artist #silkscreen #print #printmaking #ohio #colonialism #assimilation

[losahoma-prints]

Ofi’at losa means black dog in Chickasaw. In Chickasaw, colors are verbs (the grass is greening). The “at” suffix means that the dog is being black. Kinda cool huh?

#Chickasaw #dogs #print #art #linocut #Native American #languages #printmaking #artists on tumblr #losahomaprints #traditional art #native Art

[pwlanier]

Picked up a nice etching by American, WPA artist Raphael Soyer (1933-1989) at a garage sale this morning.

Sorry for the poor photograph, it is under glass.

“Protected” was created in an edition of 250 in 1938.

It is in the collection of most major museums including the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Once dubbed the “East Side Degas,” Russian-Jewish émigré and social-realist painter Raphael Soyer depicted ordinary men and women in contemporary settings. While studying at the Art Students League of New York under Guy Pène du Bois, he was influenced by the Ashcan School’s faithful representations of daily life in New York City’s poorer corners. Soyer rejected abstract art, stating, “I choose to be a realist and a humanist in art.” In sympathetic renderings of the unemployed during and after the great economic crash of 1929, many of Soyer’s paintings came to embody the Depression, as in the drawn, weary face and soft eyes that gaze out of Portrait of Walter Broe (1932). Soyer also painted women in large numbers and various forms throughout his career, including nudes, shop-girls, prostitutes, and pedestrians, displaying a love for and fascination with the manifold faces of humanity. WIKI

Moses and Raphael Soyer were identical twin brothers. Born in Russia, they immigrated with their family to America in 1913. They both studied art in New York, and went on to become successful figurative painters. During the 1930s, the brothers became involved with the Works Progress Administration and worked together on several large projects, including a mural for the Kingsessing Station Post Office in Philadelphia. Both Raphael and Moses were influenced by the Depression and painted many realistic scenes that expressed their concern for America’s poor and unemployed citizens. SMITHSONIAN

#wpa #social realism #depression era #american scene art #raphael soyer #new york city #ashcan school #printmaking #etching #regionalism

[lisamarie-vee]

#great american lesbian art show #chicago #1980s #illustration #printmaking

[internationalemeteorologie]

Hiroshi Yoshida

Grand Canyon  (United States series). 1925

#hiroshi yoshida #printmaking art #woodblock art #american landscapes #shin hanga #ukiyo-e #modern art #japanese artist

[doubtsandloves]

Fairfield Porter (American, 1907-1975) - The Dog at the Door, 1971

#art #printmaking #landscape #animals in art #Fairfield Porter #American

[the-cricket-chirps]

Barry Moser

King of the Birds

(Pennyroyal Press)

#barry moser #illustration #printmaking #prints #book illustration #modern art #american art #art history #aesthetictumblr #tumblraesthetic #tumblrpic #tumblrpictures #tumblr art #printing #aesthetic #tumblrstyle #artists on tumblr #tumblrlove #peacock #birds #beautiful birds #wildlife #nature

[petalpetal]

Artist I Like Series 

Kara Walker 1969 - ???? an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Walker was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1997, at the age of 28, becoming one of the youngest ever recipients of the award. Walker is regarded as among the most prominent and acclaimed Black American artists working today.

#kara walker #20th century art #21st century art #contemporary art #printmaking #painter #female artist #american #african american #artist I like #art history #art #art inspo #fave #petal talks