<b>EVIL MONK</b> / Tetsuro Komai1950<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Tetsuro Komai is one of Japan's most celebrated copperplate printmakers. His designs are highly imaginative, often evoking mysterious, dreamlike imagery with a mastery of the medium. Komai studied oil painting in school, but his travels to Europe and his association with the master copperplate printmaker Kiyoshi Hasegawa prompted him to take up the art form. However, it wasn't until his return to Japan, and under the tutelage of Sosaku Hanga artist Koshiro Onchi during his Ichimokukai (First Thursday Club) meetings, that the burgeoning printmaker received the inspirational sustenance needed to produce prints in earnest. Much like the other attendees in the Onchi-lead group, Komai received the encouragement to produce artwork that pushed the boundaries of both the technical aspects of printmaking and accepted artistic subjects. As a result, Komai developed unconventional printing techniques, such as utilizing sand and other foreign agents, to produce highly expressive printing effects that effectively combined his imaginative dreamlike subjects.

Evil Monk is among Komai's earliest works. The design depicts a young monk in a downward cast, caught in a moment of contemplation. It appears the subject's eyes are closed, but there is some ambiguity, as a circular splash of pigment on the eyelid may suggest the pupil of an eye whose look is not so benign. Even more curious is the misshapen form of the young monk's head. The work appears as a koan, or riddle, to the viewer. Moreover, this design may playfully suggest multiple encounters with a keisaku, the flat wooden stick or slat used to remedy sleepiness or lapses of concentration in Zen meditation. There are countless Zen stories of Buddhist abbots that administered quick but firm strikes on the shoulder or the head if the adherent is not moved by the blows in service toward the sitter's concentration.

In this simple and modest design, Komai produces an emotionally potent image. Echoing the subject, the design is austere and contemplative. It shows Komai's mastery of the medium, rendering different elements of texture to every aspect of the design that brings the work to life. The soft gray tone with faint scratch-like effects seems to animate the design and add a sense of tension to the background.

Connoisseur's Note

This work is among Komai's rarest designs. It is only known in eight numbered impressions and this single artist's proof. It is thought the artist may have destroyed the etching plate. It is not known whether this occurred by choice or by accident.