Background
Sarah Brayer, born in 1957, is an American artist who works in both Japan and the United States. She is internationally known for her poured washi paperworks, aquatints, and woodblock prints. In the 1970s Brayer became interested in Japanese aesthetics through the color aquatints of the American Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), and Raku-style ceramics. Arriving in Japan in 1979, she studied etching with Yoshiko Fukuda (1937–86) and Japanese woodblock printing with Toshi Yoshida (1911–1996). Her interest in color gradation was piqued by the woodblock technique, and she subsequently applied similar gradations to her color aquatints. She opened her own print studio in an old kimono weaving factory in Kyoto, when she discovered the art of poured washi (Japanese paper). Her interest in this technique led her to the historic washi paper center of Echizen in Fukui prefecture. She has been working in the village of Echizen ever since, notably as the only non-Japanese artist who has worked in this 800-year-old village, home to living national treasure paper-makers. She is also the only westerner to work there continuously, producing distinctive large-scale paperworks.
In 1999, Brayer received a grant from the College Women's Association of Japan (CWAJ), which enabled her to develop a pioneering print technique using washi as a printing medium. Her early works were realistic cityscapes and landscapes, figures or pathways through the snow. With continued experimentation, her imagery has become more abstract: the flow of a waterfall, the curve of a wave, or the passage of light through clouds.
Sarah's awards include being the first artist ever invited to exhibit at Byodoin Temple, a World Heritage site dating from the Heian period, as part of Kyoto's 1,200-year celebration in 1992. Japan's Ministry of Culture awarded her its Bunkacho Chokan Hyosho ("Commissioner's Award") for dissemination of Japanese culture abroad through her paper creations in Echizen washi. Since 1987, she has had 66 solo exhibitions worldwide, and has participated in 35 group shows. There are 23 publications related to her work, including a catalogue raisonné in 2018 (Sarah Brayer: The Complete Prints 1980-2018). There have also been eight lectures and interviews, including the 2001 Lecture, "Painting with Paper" before the The Japan Society, London, at the Beatrice Royal Gallery, Eastleigh, England.
Brayer's art is in various public collections, including the British Museum, London; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art; Cincinnati Museum; National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution; New York Public Library; Oregon Art Institute; Shimonoseki Museum of Art; and Worcester Art Museum.
Design:
"Bathtime Twilight" is one of Sarah Brayer's signature early designs, an atmospheric view of Yasaka-jinja street in Kyoto enveloped in mist. The bathhouse is indicated by the glowing red sign of heat rising from a bath. In the distance the Buddhist pagoda at Yasaka-jinja (Yasaka Shrine 八坂神社) materializes at the end of the street. The five-story-tall pagoda is the last remaining structure of a sixth-century temple complex known as Hôkan-ji (Hokanji Temple 法観寺). It is 46-meters tall with graceful, sloping roofs on each tier, situated in the middle of an old Kyoto neighborhood, between Kiyomizu-dera Temple and Yasaka-jinja Shrine in the Higashiyama District.
This aquatint is one of Brayer's most charming designs, with a lovely range of colors. The edition has sold out.
References
- Betsy Franco and Michael Verne, Quiet Elegance: Japan Through the Eyes of Nine American Artists. Rutland, VT: 1997, 87-98.
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