<b>OREGON</b> / Junichiro Sekino1974<B>SOLD</b></em>

Details

In 1958, Sekino embarked on his inaugural journey to the United States alongside a gathering of artists and writers at the behest of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Japan Society. Five years later, in 1963, he returned to the American landscape, invited by a grant from the Ford Foundation. During this second tour, Gordon Gilkey, a faculty in the Art Department at Oregon State University, extended an invitation to Sekino to teach for a year as a visiting artist. Gilkey pushed Sekino to experiment with new techniques and shared his vast personal collection of contemporary prints from around the world.

Influenced and possibly conceived during his time in Oregon, this print captures the essence of the region. The design depicts one of Oregon's many pristine areas and showcases a densely populated woodland snow-covered landscape. The falling snow is artfully portrayed through thick applications of white, employing both woodblock printed pigment and hand-applied gofun. The striking and dynamic composition highlights two radiant beams of light, rendered with a lustrous gold metallic pigment, piercing through the trees. The remarkable design captures the profound beauty of the region with convincing realism and a robust, expressive quality.

Connoisseur's Note

This large-scale design was executed by Sekino in Japan. As such, impressions of this design are rarely seen in the US.

This work is in pristine condition with vivid colors—a testament to its years of archival storage. It is quite rare to find large-scale work that has never been framed or displayed and has been spared the transgressions of improper framing and fading caused by years of exposure to sunlight. This print is as fresh as the day it was printed.