Background
The following text is largely taken from the Fiorillo Web Page cited below:
Mabuchi Tôru (馬淵聖 1920-94) was born in Tokyo, the son of Mabuchi Rokutarô, a wood-engraver and commercial artist who was a pioneer in the airbrush technique, teaching himself through reading books published in France and the U.S. Frustrated at not becoming an artist himself, Rokutarô did all that he could to promote his son's interest in fine art.
Tôru (who romanized his given name as Thoru) initially learned wood engraving from his father. Later, he studied in the craft design section of the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkô (Tokyo School of Fine Arts: 東京美術学校) in Ueno, graduating in 1941. Although the course included oil painting and drawing, it was focused primarily on the decorative and applied arts. Nevertheless, Mabuchi continued working on printmaking, even exhibiting in major shows. He also attended one of the extracurricular print classes given by Hiratsuka Un'ichi at Ueno. Mabuchi told Oliver Statler, that, "I sketch in oils, watercolors, and pastels but I've never exhibited anything but prints, and I think of myself as a print artist."
Upon graduation, he was conscripted into the army in December 1941, with an assignment to a regiment guarding the Imperial Palace. When the military administrators learned of his skills in art, they directed him to make maps and charts. Thus he never carried a weapon and remained in Tokyo for the duration of the war. In the years following the global conflict, Mabuchi became active in the art societies of the time, exhibiting works with the Zôkei Hanga Kyôkai (Formative Print Association). He was a member of the Nihon Hanga Kyôkai (Japan Print Association: 日本洋画協会) from 1954 to 1960, when he then joined the newly formed Nipponkai (Japan Print Society: 日本会). More than two decades later, in 1982, he rejoined the Nihon Hanga Kyôkai. Mabuchi also taught at Hiroshima University.
Many of Mabuchi's early works were in small formats. His initial style, before his better known mosaic technique, already marked him as an experimenter among sôsaku hanga (creative prints: 創作版画) artists. There was often a thick, liquid quality to his colorants, and a dark, warm palette. When, after the war, Mabuchi took over his father's business, he had the financial security to perfect the intricate mosaic printmaking technique for which he is best known. This approach developed from his interest in Byzantine mosaics and the pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat (1859-91). Mabuchi cut small pieces of very thin wood that he glued to a board in a mosaic-like pattern. "I started," he told Statler, "by attempting the pointillist technique of juxtaposing spots of primary colors, but it didn't work, so I fell back on the mosaic effect." He would make several blocks for a design and once assembled, would print in the traditional way. Among the colorants he used were poster colors and watercolors from tubes. He sometimes made studies in oils before attempting the woodcuts. In Mabuchi's most elaborate works, there were as many as 30 to 50 printing stages from multiple blocks, thus his labor-intensive production was relatively small. Another subject that appears regularly in Mabuchi's oeuvre is the prehistoric haniwa (埴輪), anthropomorphic clay figures found at burial sites.
Design:
This fine still life of lilies placed before silhouettes of a bowl and a large vase is a distinctive design from the artist's middle period. As with some of his other works, the forms edge toward abstraction and thus bring the design close to the realm of representational abstraction.
This print is from a rare edition identified as 家蔵 (Kazô, "Household"), indicating this impression is from the artist’s personal collection. The signature is very difficult to see, but it reads "T. Mabuchi" in purple at lower right
Mabuchi's prints are included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia; Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum, London; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Harvard Art Museums, MA; Honolulu Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Smart Museum, University of Chicago.
References:
- Chigasaki City Museum of Art: Hibi no kôsa — Mabuchi sei no sekai (Daily Brilliance — The World of Mabuchi Tôru: 日々の光彩 ― 馬渕 聖の世界) [English Title: Tôru Mabuchi Retrospective], 1998.
- Fiorillo: https://viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/sosaku_hanga/mabuchi_toru.html.
- Smith, L.: Modern Japanese Prints, 1912-1989. London: British Museum Press, 1994, pp. 59-60, plate 119 and p. 63.
- Statler, O.: Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn. Rutland VT: Tuttle, 1956, pp. 172-75, plates 99-100.
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