<b>WORK</b>Okiie Hashimoto1981$1,200</em>

Details

Most known for his views of castles and rock gardens, Okiie Hashimoto was also an accomplished portrait artist and created some very compelling designs at the start of his career. In this work, Hashimoto revisits the format with a considerably pared down composition. In this elegant scene we have a woman, most likely a seamstress, at work. The power of this design lies in its composition and editing: the entire work reads like one of Hashimoto’s rock gardens, where blocks of color represent objects in space, relating to each other based on their perfect placement. In this design, the blocks of complementary color are assembled in a wonderfully harmonious manner. The colors play off each other and animate this otherwise subdued scene.

Hashimoto goes a step further by adding a subtle layer of bokashi, or color gradation, in the subject’s blue dress. This bokashi adds another level of interest at the center and perhaps quotes his countless landscapes adorned with bright skies of artfully articulated blue. All these design elements work in concert, providing the viewer with a rhythm only a well-crafted composition can harmonize.

Connoisseur's Note

It is interesting to consider how similar this late Hashimoto design is to the work of the great modern colorist Milton Avery. For example, if we take Avery’s work “Conversation in the Studio, 1943,” pictured below, we see striking connections. Like Hashimoto’s portrait, Avery creates his design from blocks of color. The contrasting colors and shapes animate the otherwise introspective scene. It is also interesting to note how Avery’s colors are applied rather unevenly, almost mimicking the effect of bokashi found in Japanese woodblock printing. It is not known if Hashimoto had Avery’s work in mind, but it is interesting to ponder how the style of these two artists intersect. With respect to Hashimoto, it took years of editing representational designs to come to the understanding of Avery’s simplification. This Hashimoto design may very well be one of the last crowning achievements in his late-period style.