City 109 by Risaburo Kimura

This is a screen print by Japanese-American Artist Risaburo Kimura. It is titled City 109 and is from his famous series "Great Cities of the World". This is an imaginary city consisting of a tall, narrow blue and purple rectangular building covered in tiny reflective silver windows. The building is interrupted by a jagged series of lines creating a chasm disrupting the order of the building. The top of the chasm is labeled New York, while the bottom is labeled Tokyo, perhaps reflecting the artist's journey from Japan to the United States. Kimura's symbolism is always ambiguous. The piece is signed and dated lower right, Risaburo Kimura 1969. the title and edition are given lower left, 10/35 City 109 . It is unframed and is in very good condition with the exception of a marginal tear along the right edge that stops well away from the image. Otherwise there is no paper loss, stains, foxing, fading, or other issues. The plate size is 20 x 31.25 inches printed and the sheet is 25.75 x 33 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.

Size: 1969
Price: $700
Size: 25.75 x 33 inches
Plate Size: 20 x 31.25
Condition: Very Good
Medium: Screenprint/Silkscreen
Subject: Architecture & Cityscape

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