Mid Century 1960s Japanese Woodblock Print Flute Player Toshijiro Nenjiro Inagaki Contemporary Vintage Framed Art

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Japanese woodblock print, "Flute Player". by. Toshijiro (Nenjiro) Inagaki.
Toshijiro Inagaki was primarily known as a designer of kimono patterns.
… Read more Japanese woodblock print, "Flute Player". by. Toshijiro (Nenjiro) Inagaki.
Toshijiro Inagaki was primarily known as a designer of kimono patterns.
Inagaki was part of the sosaku hanga movement which advocated that to be considered ‘art,’ the woodblock print must be self-drawn, self-carved, and self-printed with the desire of expressing the self.
Framed.
Overall size: 16 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.Sight size: 11 x 9 1/2 in.

This woodblock print 'Flute Player' has a wonderful contemporary modern design printed from a single woodcut using multi-colored inks in a variety of vivid tones. It was published by Mikumo Mokuhansha in Kyoto c1950-60. Toshijiro (or Nenjiro) Inagaki was an acclaimed kimono designer who was designated as an intangible cultural property in 1962, the highest distinction awarded to Japanese artists by the government. In the years 1950-1960, he designed a small lot of woodblock prints published by Mikumo Mokuhansha in Kyoto. These stylized designs reflect the stencil techniques he used to create textiles, with geometric shapes and unusual color gradients. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has several engravings of Inagaki in its collection.

After graduation, Inagaki worked at the Matsuzakaya department store, where he learned to dye cloth. He left the department store in 1931 to focus on his art.In 1938, he began to dye screen paintings using the yuzen method of dyeing. He won an award at the Kokugakai exhibition in 1940, but he entered the spotlight when one of his paintings was selected at the Nitten exhibition in 1941.He was selected twice more after that.

After World War II, he left the Kokugakai and formed the Shinsho Bijutsu Kogei Kai with Tomimoto Kenkichi. He then began dyeing using the katazome method in 1948, and continued to do so for the rest of his life. He was appointed a professor at his alma mater, the Kyoto City University of Arts, in 1958.
He was designated a Living National Treasure in 1962, a year before his death from cancer on June 10, 1963.His work is held by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art See less