City 133 by Risaburo Kimura
This is a screen print by Japanese-American Artist Risaburo Kimura. It is titled City 133 and is from his famous series "Great Cities of the World". This is an imaginary city consisting of what appears to be rows of text in an unknown language. What appears to be an aerial view of a city is pressed between the lines of text, with the symbols intruding into the city. Patches of green that could represent parks or greenspace are also present as are the roofs of buildings. There is an orange circle and line that appears to connect a part of the city to an open space in the text, almost like a you are here. This starts a dotted line where the artist places his signature and date between two green squares, Risaburo Kimura 1970. Farther down the page on the right is a yellow line connecting to a red symbol next to which is an open box containing the title in pencil City 133 land A/P indicating this is an artist's proof. It is unframed and is in good condition with the exception of a marginal tear along the left edge that stops just short of the image. Otherwise there is no paper loss, stains, foxing, fading, or other issues. The plate size is 21 x 27 inches printed almost to the edge of the paper that is 22.75 x 28.75 inches.
Risaburo Kimura (1924-2014) Risaburo Kimura is a celebrated Japanese printmaker. He is best known for a large series of prints titled "Great Cities of the World". Some of these are his impressions of real cities from around the world, but many are creations of his imagination. Each are unique and distinctive. Taking over 3 years and using both lithography and serigraphy, he created over 400 images.
Born in Japan, unlike many artists, he did not immediately study art but chose to study philosophy at Hosei University. While there, he began to take art courses as an extracurricular activity. He initially tried to combine his art hobby and his intellectual discipline by becoming an art critic. However, he ultimately realized that he wanted to make art and pursued this for the rest of his life. Always marching to his own drummer, rather than pursuing painting through the academic Japanese tradition, he joined the Sozo Biiku Movement which emphasized creative artistic freedom and exemplified by artists such as Teijiro Kubo and Ay-o. This resulted in a unique style of printmaking different from the two most well-known contemporary Japanese print making movements, Shin-Hanga and Showa-hanga both of which grew from the traditional Japanese woodblock print tradition. He moved to the United States in 1964 and resided in the US for the rest of his life although he frequently returned to Japan. He art was recognized and appreciated, and he exhibited extensively. Some of the more notable exhibitions included the Guggenheim Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan, and inclusion in special exhibitions such as the Biennial of Prints in Tokyo; Modern Prints of Japan, Brussels, Belgium; and the Japanese Arts Festival at the Guggenheim. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; Kyoto City Hall, Japan; Cincinnati Art Museum; National Museum of Modern Art, Japan; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Price: $700
Size: 22.75 x 28.75 inches
Plate Size: 21 x 27 inches
Condition: Good
Medium: Screenprint/Silkscreen
Subject: Architecture & Cityscape
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