2. Artists & stock
3. Akira Abé
4. Biography

Notes of biography

The Japanese engraver Akira Abé was born at Ehimé in 1949.
In the beginning of the seventies, he studies at the Art School in Asagaya (Tokyo). Since 1974, The young man  gives up to the drawing. In 1984, he travels for the first time to Paris and decides to settle there. Akira Abé learns about the engraving in L’Atelier 17 headed by Stanley William Hayter. Then he chooses the  graver which requires hard work. Created in 1927,  «L’Atelier 17» could be defined as an experimental studio where artists and students come to work from all the parts of the world; a place of exchanges and training. Chagall, Ernst, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Miro and many others worked with the master.
The different methods developed by Hayter - the simultaneous colors, the etching techniques with several colors on only one engraving plate - provide many possibilities and the artists will be encouraged to innovate. But Akira Abé becomes a master in black and white.
In 1985, Akira Abé participates, as he will do in the years after,  at his first «Salon de Mai». Then, he will regularly show his work in many group exhibitions, in France and in other countries (Les Jeunes Graveurs à Paris in 1986, Salon d’Automne, or International Mini prints in Cadaquès - Spain, in 1986, Salon d’Art Graphique Aujourd’hui in Paris and Norwegian International of Prints in Norway in 1988, Bhavan International of Prints in India and Salon des Petits Formats in Belgium in 1989, etc).
Akira Abé wins several awards and his talent is recognized. For example, he was given the first engraving award at the Salon D’Automne in 1997, and the first award of the Salon «Le Burin selon chacun» à Rueil Malmaison in 2004.
The artist did solo exhibitions in Paris (Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Galerie Bonafous Murat) and in Japan (Kobé, Tokyo).
Akira Abé is very close to his friend Hector Saunier who headed with Juan Valladares L’Atelier 17 when Hayer disappears in 1988 (called now Atelier Contrepoint). The engraver will publish works to illustrate Robert Marteau’s poems, their friend who passes away in 2011.
Who, except this poet could  write on the work of Akira Abé:
Crested with foam, the waves want to conquer the time and give back it to the eternity. In this moment of perpetual or perpetuated suspens, Abé has but one weapon, his infinite patience, and in his hand his graver; he welcomes his creative act and without reducing or stopping he put in the metal the movement that the pressed paper then restitutes, so, in this way he hands back what the meticulous plowing with persevering efforts could raise from memory.
The artist have lived in Paris for 25 years; unfortunately, he suffered a stroke, and it needs a long time to get better. He came back to his native country in 2010. Today he is living and working in Tokyo.

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