Masuo Ikeda -『ミックスド・フルーツ』マンゴ (Mixed Fruits - Mango)

Modern | Sōsaku Hanga Lithograph

A fabulous lithograph by Masuo Ikeda: 『ミックスド・フルーツ』マンゴ (Mixed Fruits - Mango). A seated female nude fills the sheet, her head tilted back. Ikeda’s fine black line is set against broad areas of coral pink, ochre and yellow, with the figure left largely open against the stronger surrounding colour. A striking image from his 1976 Mixed Fruits series. 🥭

• Year & Edition: 1976 · Ed. of 50 (25/50) (signed, editioned & dated in pencil).
• Series: 『ミックスド・フルーツ』(Mixed Fruits).
• Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper · printed by Hitoshi Takatsuki.
• Dimensions: Sheet approx. H: 58.00 cm × W: 45.00 cm.
• Condition: Mint. Exceptionally well stored, with bright colours and crisp, intact paper.
• Notes: Mixed Fruits was produced in 1976 as a series of nine erotic lithographs at the Nantenshi Gallery Print Studio, Tokyo. Initially planned under the title Fruit Punch, the works were also published in an art book accompanied by poems. Examples from the series are held by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. *Two original blind-embossed chop marks to paper. Mango is recorded as Catalogue Raisonné No. 622 in 池田満寿夫全版画 (Masuo Ikeda Prints), Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1991.

About the Artist

Masuo Ikeda (1934-1997) was one of postwar Japan’s most internationally celebrated printmakers, known for inventive and often erotic works across etching, drypoint and lithography. In 1965 he became the first Japanese artist to receive a solo exhibition at MoMA, New York, followed by the Grand Prize for Printmaking at the 1966 Venice Biennale. A relentlessly experimental artist, Ikeda later worked across painting, ceramics, film and literature, winning Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1977. [ ← View All Works by Masuo Ikeda]