<b>TWO CHERRIES</b> / Yozo Hamaguchi1958$6,000</em>

Details

Yozo Hamaguchi is among the world's most celebrated mezzotint printmakers. He is credited for the resurgence of interest in copperplate prints in the mid-20th century. Born to a well-established family, Hamaguchi studied painting and sculpture in art school. While on a trip abroad in France, Hamaguchi befriended the famed poet e. e. cummings, who suggested his designs may best be suited for prints and gifted Hamaguchi his first intaglio tools. Hamaguchi's newfound artistic inspiration in Paris was interrupted by the start of World War II in 1939, and he subsequently returned to Japan, producing a handful of designs. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Hamaguchi further refined his mezzotint style and was deemed a pioneer of the medium. The art world's enthusiasm for Hamaguchi's prints resulted in his first solo exhibition in Tokyo in 1951.

Hamaguchi returned to France in 1953 to market his prints in the Parisian art scene. By then, the majority of his new works were monochrome copperplate etchings executed in gray, black, and white. The year 1955 was a pivotal year in Hamaguchi's career as he revitalized mezzotint as a modern art medium and developed his signature style, inserting vibrant colors into his mezzotint designs that imbued them with an energetic liveliness. Moreover, he transformed his recognizable subjects of still-life and city scenes into simplified, abstract forms that took on entirely new visual meanings. By the start of the 1960s, Hamaguchi, alongside other Japanese print artists, was recognized in various international art competitions for their revolutionary printing techniques and the strength of their designs. Hamaguchi's international success enshrined him as an icon of Contemporary Japanese prints.

Two Cherries is among Hamaguchi's first color mezzotints and an early work featuring this playful subject. Hamaguchi would continue to revisit the subject of fruit, particularly red cherries, as a central theme in his body of work. Hamaguchi commented that the subject was brought to his attention as a joke by the poet e.e. Cummings, as a sexual reference. Hamaguchi would later produce his vastly successful series, 22 Cherries, based on a poem by Cummings. In this work, Hamaguchi produces a stunning luminous background with an ethereal light, revealing delicate lines of blue, yellow, and green as they transverse across a void of black. Hamaguchi then sets his subjects afloat in this magical space. The cherries seem to acknowledge each other with a slight tilt towards one another. The charming design possesses a sensual self-awareness that perhaps invokes the inside joke the artist once shared with cummings.

Connoisseur's Note

This large-scale print is among the artist's first colored mezzotints and was produced during Hamaguchi's second extended stay in Paris. This design was entirely self-directed and printed by Hamaguchi's hand. The design was executed in a very limited run of 50 impressions and is considered among the artist's most successful and sought-after works. This print is in an exceedingly fine state of preservation with sharp and vivid colors.