Akira Kurosaki - 朱のアラベスク (Vermillion Arabesque)

Modern | Sōsaku Hanga Woodblock Print

A fabulous print by Akira Kurosaki: 朱のアラベスク (Vermillion Arabesque). This striking 1980 woodblock combines a powerful vermilion form with looping ribbons, floating geometric fragments, and a dark gridded background. 🌈 The rich reds, blues, purples, and blacks are very characteristic of Kurosaki’s work, while the title’s reference to the arabesque feels especially apt in the curling, rhythmic lines that animate the whole image. A superb example of post-war Japanese printmaking in which traditional mokuhanga is pushed into a bold, graphic, highly original direction. ✨

• Year & Edition: 1980 · Ed. of 90 (75/90) (signed & titled in pencil to plate).
• Medium: Woodblock. 12 blocks, 24 colours - printed on Echizen Torinoko paper.
• Dimensions: Sheet H: 67.00 cm × W: 48.00 cm (Image H: 55.00 cm × W: 39.00 cm).
• Condition: Fabulous. Unmarked, deep rich colours. Paper clean & crisp. Minor margin handling.
• Notes: Raisonné No. 292, (W277). 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]