A diptych of Maki prints, one done in 1968 and the other in 1969. In the best of Maki's spartan austere style, they are Poem 68-40 and Poem 69-13.

Haku Maki did a wide range of works: prints of many sizes, book plates, greeting cards, and postcards. Here are four postcards that he did in 1999. They are lithographs, each signed and with a Maki seal. They also appeared as prints at the same time. Haku Maki or his family produced them in the last year or so of his life.

5.75 x 8.5 in. ai in Japanese The white background is punctuated by a yellow sun and a red splash --true Maki style. Frame 5 shows Sanae’s careful translation and explanation of this print – and her intuition as to what Maki-san may have meant when he created this image 41 years ago. Copyright 2012 Sanae Nakajima Chambers and Daniel Tretiak

Some time ago one Connie Elrod offered me a set of the Maki zodiac in a format never seen before or since. These are not pulled from cement blocks. Rather they seem to be printed lithographs. One James Imai, a friend of Maki who lives in California, commissioned Maki to do a special zodiac set for the Lunar Year. Imai seems to have sent a card every year to friends. Imai sent them to his friend James Elrod seemingly one every year for 12 years...

The bottom margin states this is 39/777 but did Maki really do that many and if so where are they? This is a late-in-life Maki print. Where did this idea come from? A sunflower! I know van Gogh did quite a few famous paintings depicting many sunflowers, all realistic paintings. The Japanese printmaker Tadashi Nakayama did many different takes on Sunflowers. These were realistic depictions. Nakayama did fewer...

Original lithograph by Wendell H. Black (American, 1919-1972) in excellent original unframed condition. Artist proof, printed and signed by the artist l.r. Also titled l.l. An extremely rare impression by a master printmaker. Provenance on request. One of a number of works by this artist currently offered. Please inquire.

In 1970 quite suddenly Haku Maki started producing truly large prints. They were dramatic and somewhat unexpected, all at least 24in x 24in and extended in size to 35in x 35in. His huge print of a woman is 36in x 72in. All of these were created in 1970. Then no Big ones until Big Mu done in 1973. Then no more huge ones. What happened to Maki? What happened to the supply of paper? This Poem 70-10 is pretty large--17.5in W x 24.5in H--but it was succeeded by others even larger.

Original lithograph on wove paper by Hermann Max Pechstein (German,1881-1955), dated 1917, signed in the plate HMP and dated 1917, and signed in pencil and dated lower right. Image size: approximately 10cm by 16cm. An extremely rare original lithograph by a major artist. Cf: LACMA Collection. Provenance: the estate of a Holocaust survivor in Charlotte NC.

Haku Maki was undoubtedly Japan’s most prolific print maker of the second half of the 20th century. Many of his works were serious works of kanji and also ceramics. These three are perhaps a bit frivolous. They are actually pretty: each one has seeming globs of color The blue one on the left has kanji in the blue stone; the central one has a wonderful black kanji for Mountain in the center; and the one on the right four globs, each of a different color. And one splash.

This print contains Japanese hieroglyphics not real kanji. It shows "rain" "day" and maybe a bird. It is 19.3x12.6cm.

Haku Maki did many prints some with interesting backgrounds some not. This modest run of rather large pints had a special black background: it is the texture of old leather. . Maki created and used this technique only in 1981 prints and mainly in persimmons. The persimmons are plump and meaty the green leaves of the fruit are nicely proportioned. Maki did only a few twin persimmon prints and none after 1980 except this one. 81-10 is in frame 2...

Haku Maki produced this “pair” of prints in 1968. The first image is Child. This is the first time Maki produced an image with Child as a theme. Poem 68-52. The second one is his kanji for Water. Poem 68-53. This image was used again in the set of 21 prints he produced for Festive Wine, which was issued in 1969. The colors in both are strikingly beautiful in these images – as they also are as prints. Maki signed each in white ink, something he rarely did...

Haku Maki Poem 71 92 - was done in 1971, one of the four years in which Maki did over 100 different prints. In 1971 he did about 5 Big prints – at least two sides are over 30 inches. In his total oeuvre he did 20+ big ones but only one Yellow This is it. It seems to be a single yellow stroke piercing the black; it is also the kanji for Mind in Maki’s mind...

This note looks at newly emerged prints (in 2015, that is) including Poem 72-110, Poem 70-10, and a work simply called 81-11.

(continued) the last two panels show the same kanji for Rising in two different designs. Maki seemed to have liked this theme. Big Red is Poem 71-50; it was preceded by Poem 70-48 a smaller print. These are shown below.

Poem 72-47 (road) 32 X 21.5 inches textured paper The sun is the inner part of the kanji for road. This is a very big and stunning Maki print It was done in 1972 at the height of his artistic powers. It depicts the kanji for Road or Way, e.g.the Way of Taoism (Daoism). As if done with a brush, the character whooshes across the well-textured paper. At the middle of the print, Maki has added a White Sun.

Dan Tretiak chose the following 10 words as the description for this listing: merry christmas to all and to all a good night.

In 1968 Haku Maki produced this large Blue image of Child. The blue is vivid and the yellow face is in sharp contrast. To the far right is a small Green Child, the same theme, different key color. It appeared in 1969. The red image is a trial run for a Festive Wine print. It never made it. The translators of Festive Wine or Anne Brannen nixed it and used a different Child image, the fifth frame...