You wish to be alarmed for any new work by this artist? Please enter your email.
-
Read biography ARTIST ALARM
Biography of Yozo Hamaguchi
The Japanese painter and etcher Yozo Hamaguchi was born in 1909 in Yakayama prefecture. His family, in business, moved a few years later (1915) to Chöshi. Very far from the artistic environment, the young boy will nevertheless study painting and sculpture, then will start studying in 1927 at the Tokyo University of Arts where he will study mainly sculpture; in 1930, he decides to go to France to continue studying art. In 1937, he participated in the founding of the Society of Independent Japanese Artists (Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai), which for three years, crossed by an avant-garde current, attempted the recognition of certain forms of expression (photography and graphic design). Yozo Hamaguchi exhibited his paintings at the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Indépendants, and the Salon des Tuileries, but had to leave the French capital in 1939 to return to Japan at the dawn of the Second World War; he was mobilized in the Pacific War.
It was in France that the young artist discovered mezzotint; Yozo Hamaguchi's interest in this difficult and demanding technique (a complex technique of intaglio engraving) was born of his meeting with the American poet Edward Estlin Cummings, who, after seeing his drawings, suggested that he pursue his work by exploring this method. Developed in the 17th century by the German artist Ludwig von Siegen, the technique of the mezzotint (also called "half-tone") is today associated with the work of a few rare artists (Mikio Watanabe, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Mario Avati, for example). Over the years, Yozo Hamaguchi became an undisputed master.He returned to Paris in 1953 with his wife, the poet and artist Keiko Minami. The couple decided to settle there; he had his own studio. In 1957, he was awarded the grand prize of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo at the first biennial print competition. In 1958, he exhibited his prints in Paris at Berggruen, then among others and successively at Ditesheim in Neuchâtel, at the Prints Club in Cleveland, in Geneva at the Gérald Cramer Gallery, at the Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco, at Fitch in New York, and he presented an album of prints noticed, in 1974, at the Graphic's International in Washington.Yozo Hamaguchi manages to make the subjects of his works emerge from the shadows, to play with gravity. Among the fruits and vegetables featured in his paintings, lemons, pomegranates, corncobs, watermelons or cherries - which he used for the official poster of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. His mezzotints (there are more than 130) refer to the work of the European surrealists, and contain many sexual allegories. The small formats are the most sought after because the artist concentrates the quintessence of his art there.In 1981, Yozo Hamaguchi and his wife left Paris for San Francisco where they had been living for fifteen years. The couple returned to Tokyo in 1996.In 1998, the Yamasa Corporation opened an important museum in Tokyo with about 60 works by Hamaguchi.The artist died in 2000 in Tokyo; he was 91 years old."Art is said to heal, but it does so in our minds," said Yozo Hamaguchi.
1 work(s) available
