Akira Kurosaki - 魔法陣5 (Magic Square 5)

Modern | Sōsaku Hanga Woodblock Print

A fabulous print by Akira Kurosaki: 魔法陣5 (Magic Square 5). A red human figure, seen from behind with both palms raised, sits above two photographic sexualised panels. At the centre, interlocking silver, black, white and red anatomical forms are suspended across the divided green field, while a pair of red and black feet appears below. The title becomes literal at the base of the image with a 4 × 4 magic square, arranging the numbers 1-16 so that every row, column and diagonal totals 34. Kurosaki brings together the human body, photographic imagery, anatomy, numbers and bold geometric colour in a major large-scale work from 1975 - an important example of the experimental printmaking that immediately preceded his Camouflaged World series. 🔢🟥

• Year & Edition: 1975 · Ed. of 50 (11/50) (signed & titled in pencil to plate).
• Medium: Woodblock & Photographic relief. 6 blocks, 10 colours (1/1 photo). Printed on Echizen Torinoko paper*.
• Dimensions: Sheet approx H: 89.00 cm × W: 62.00 cm (Image H: 80.00 cm × W: 55.00 cm).
• Condition: Image clean & colours vibrant. General toning & foxing to margins. Fox spot to torso.
• Notes: Magic Square 5 belongs to Kurosaki’s seven-part Magic Square series of 1975. Works from the Magic Square series are represented in major Japanese museum collections. *Artist watermark to margins. Raisonné No. 203, (W196). 黒崎彰の全仕事 (The Complete Works of Akira Kurosaki: Catalogue Raisonné 1965-2006).

About the Artist

Akira Kurosaki (1937-2019) was a pioneering mokuhanga artist who fused traditional Japanese woodblock techniques with bold abstraction and surreal landscapes, rendered in his signature deep reds, purples and blacks. A graduate of the Kyoto Institute of Technology and devoted to the sōsaku hanga ethos - overseeing every stage of production himself - he earned the Florence Biennale Gold Prize and Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure. From 1987 he taught and led the Printmaking Department at Kyoto Seika University, mentoring a generation of printmakers; his work is held by the British Museum, MoMA and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. [ ← View All Works by Akira Kurosaki]