<b>DIVISION—WORK NO. 79</b> / Kastunori Hamanishi1998$1,500</em>

Details

Hamanishi's mezzotints reflect a balance of technical mastery for realism, Rimpa school aesthetics, and a sensibility for contemplative subjects that cooperate with energetic tensions. This astonishing print features a nocturnal landscape set in the tall grasses of fall. The artist showcases his incredible ability to reproduce photographic realism with an array of overgrown vegetation gently bending in the soft night air. This section is incased in a fan like-shape that recalls inset, fan-like patterns on Edo period screens. The top portion of the composition is a solid band of gold leaf, both suggesting the brilliance of a sun-lit sky as well as the ornate materiality of gold and silver embellishments in Rimpa school screens. The rich crimson color surrounding the grass pattern gives the design a rich earth depth that helps to advance the eye deeper into the composition. The realism found in the mezzotint-printed portion of the outgrown vegetation is comfortably at odds with the stylized Rimpa quality of the outer portion of the composition. The entire composition is an astonishingly successful synthesis of two seemingly unrelated styles.

Connoisseur's Note

This large-scale print was produced in a limited run of only 50 impressions, which quickly sold out upon its release in 1998. This work has been kept in a flat-file by its original owner since its inception and retains its original pristine condition.