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. In mine it Is h Heart The big yellow stroke is set off by a yellow splash and a blue tear and a shimmering black sun (these are abstract parts of the kanji). The white ink signature at the left adds a nice final touch. It is a dramatic print, not soft. The single stroke may be seen as a meteor crashing through the black atmosphere targeting on
Tokyo Beijing whichever. Size 30 ½"x15 ½" and edition 11/108; This print is spending the holidays getting restored in Oregon, after a challenging life in Florida – always hard for Maki prints, it will spend the Lunar New Year holidays in Beijing.
Let a hundred flowers bloom
Paul de Troy my Belgian colleague keeps me honest with trenchant criticism of my praise of Big Yellow. After examining my text he refers back to my research note 7 and the Big Reds. He wrote: “ I think his [Maki’s] best Big Reds are far more beautiful than this one. It has none of the energy of 70-72 or the elegance of 70-7 or the sensuality of 69-2 or the spontaneity of 69-5.
none of the grace of woman 70-8.
Big Yellow has none of that. I think it is a bit static in comparison. Not a comet streaking through the atmosphere. not too much passion. I don't know: I miss a kind of fluency for things like that. The title (Mind) suggests something else than energy or sensuality. This image rather breathes "Rest" to me. A rather peaceful state of mind. that's what it is to me. I'm beginning to like it, actually, because it's beginning to make sense. I can imagine it would make some impression, extending the human body, traveling beyond the practical world."
I call this set of images The Zodiac but Maki formally called them Animal Song + the animal name in kanji. The prints here are Animal Song. Red Lantern Gallery in Kyoto distributed them in 1968.
In 1968 Haku Maki was commissioned by Red Lantern Gallery to produce the 12 animals of the Zodiac in a series entitled Animal Song. My Research Note 3 described the set briefly. This is an enhanced version. Maki did only 50 copies of each print; that was a normal run for him in that period. Over ten years I have only been able to see images of five prints. I own 4. Jennifer Britton owns the set. Her parents gave them to her.
Within the past week I have been shown all 12. I am thrilled to post them here. I have not seen such a set and will not see one again. They were purchased in 1968 at the source and kept in a closet for many years. Jennifer Britton has kindly sent me photographs of the prints. The actual prints still hang in Ms. Britton’s home.
They are all done in the best of Maki’s style: clear images, not necessarily simple ones, and very good colors. There are green and blue but also gray,teak and others. Please enjoy them. The image for Ox is really good. It shows two Chinese characters for Ox: one the design that Maki favored much of his life, the other I believe he only used once besides in this commentary. Each of the 12 images was done off the same cement block but changed for each image. The animals depicted are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog, and boar.
This 12-part series beats the socks off the great 22 images that Maki produced for the classic Festive Wine.
This Guest Research Note 1 is much ado about Nothing. The Maki print in question is 73-50A (Nothing). The essay is by David Bieling.
The third part of Note 10 looks at the prints Maki probably did in the 1969 to 1975 period but that, at the time of Dan Tretiak's writing this, had not yet come to light.
teaching example board wrapped in thin paper
last 2 images
seller
claims this is from Oakland Museum seller claims it is signed by Maki the writing and the date are NOT Maki style Maki did the print but did he sign it? did he sign this "painting"
friend doubts Oakland Museum and Maki would not have meshed
Maki not only did Large red kanji on black backgrounds, which I have denominated Big Reds.He also did Big Yellows, as in this dramatic print Poem 71-7 (Mind). Size: 32.6 x 17.2in/83 x 44cm.
For comparison, I've also included Poem 68-71 (Mind). It is in frame 8.
In the early 1980s Haku Maki produced this unusual print, Poem 3. It has a kanji bottom margin (Mountain and Water) and is only slightly embossed. It is as if he started to do a lithograph and then decided to emboss it a bit. It is a modest-size print and not spectacular. By the time he did this print Maki had finished with embossed kanji and ceramics and was heading toward less compelling work.Poem 3 has a gold sun right center, but the print has no drama and no oomph. 15x15cm.
Poem S B. This small and unpretentious print was a sleeper. Whoever sold it knew not what he had. Indeed neither did I until well after it came here to Beijing. It is a very rare 1968 Maki print. Not 1967 and not 1969. It has the kanji for Rope in the center and that is placed on a subtle but firmly done kanji for STONE - but the kanji is in there ass backwards. The correct rendering is in image 5. Mysteries abound.I have never seen the sub-title SB in a Maki print. I do not know what it means. We have seen FP but not SB. This is a rare image: the numbering 1/50 suggests this was the first image of the run--but it could have been the only one. Did Maki only do one? The paper that was ordered by Maki came from a paper maker he knew who prepared paper for him. (I do not know who he was.) The paper had the distinctive “moon surface” Maki used countless times in his prints. Note this is fairly early Maki: he employs only one splash. In frane 5 I show how Maki would have done the Stone kanji if he were not being cute: straight up (as made in Beijing). Size: 21.5 x 21.5cm.
In 1971 Haku Maki Japanese Master print-maker was at the height of his creative powers. He had already done several “big” prints and turned his skills to producing dramatic prints. This Big Blue was one. It depicts a war instrument, a halberd. Maki created this design so that it showed how the character was written. He showed us how the stroke order flowed on a woodblock print. The first flowed from lower left corner to the top right, The second stroke flowed from top to bottom, piercing the center of the print. The third stroke comes across the print from right to left. The actual kanji has to have 4 strokes: here the yellow splash should be at the right but Maki put it at the left, to be the 4th stroke. Or was the black sun at the right the 4th stroke? The blue strokes are all covered with lacquer, a frequent Maki touch. (The sun was covered in this lacquer--as was often the case.) The whole print shows off the creative style of the Master, everything fits nicely in the place allocated. The print’s size is slightly smaller than I expected it would be. For many years I had assumed the image was a Blue Woman but I had never seen the bottom margin. When Chinese colleagues saw the print and the bottom margin combined with the image they immediately said it was not Woman but a halberd, a weapon. Maki almost never depicted a weapon. As a Zen Buddhist he seemed to steer clear of military themes. I note the print is not a particularly solemn one. The blue is strong the yellow splash is bright and the sun sizzles. Sanae nakajima helped with the translating of the title. copyright daniel tretiak 2013
In 1990 Haku Maki produced as many as 6 different images of famed Mt Fuji(Fuji-san). Here are three, each one printed from a different block.
Haku Maki tried to work until he died; the last images were not pretty. They were printed first on very thin paper, which was then “wrapped” around heavy shikishi board. They are lithographs not done from wood blocks. From the late 1980s Maki had stopped doing embossed prints turning instead to collages and lithographed prints. These are among his last prints:
Kyowa brand Shikishi board is made in Japan.
Size: 9 1/2" x 10 1/2" (24.2cm x 27.2cm)
There are two (2) pieces in one pack.
These plain Shikishi art boards got a white rice paper on one side and light yellow color paper with golden sparkles on the other, edged with gold colored trim. Already mounted, the white rice paper surface is still very absorbent. You may also paint or write on the yellow side if you wish.
Thus late in life Maki seems to have experimented by doing lithograph on this board. The prints all give the impression of being dashed off with a brush, not printed, but they were. These were supposedly large editions, up to several hundred, but some were done in small editions.
Maki did not give these prints titles. Hence I describe the themes as follows: from left to right: Self Not known Mountain
Nothingness Rain and Let it go
All the images follow the Maki formula for identifying them as his: they are signed (but we cannot confirm by whom), they have the Maki seal (but who affixed it?) and who actually published the print? Maki was near death when these were done. Why did Maki do them?
1971 was a big year for Haku Maki He did over 100 different images of Japanese prints. Some, like this one, were big prints--this one, Poem 71-91, is 30.5 Inches x 15.25. It is 68/108. This is the abstract kanji for Mu or Nothing and he titled it Nothing The kanji starts at the top then cascades down to the final four strokes at the bottom. From a distance it appears to me like the steps going from top to bottom of a building on a Chinese hill on the Yangzi. Rare and dramatic,fully restored.The back has tape remnants which are stable and cannot be removed.
In the period 1966-67, Haku Maki did two large series with Song as the theme.
There was Flower Song, a series of 10 prints. And there was Animal Song which was Maki’s Asian Zodiac series, with 12 images. It was also a small series with small editions--50 in the case of Animal Song (released in Kyoto, so very hard to find: only one friend has the full set), I do not know who has the full set of Flower Song.
Equally rare is Moon Song. Many years ago I saw Moon Song 1 and did not buy it; this time I snapped it up. I show it below. Is it a necklace, as one may call the “companion piece” shown beside it but done in 1981.
Moon Song is simple and elegant. No complicated calligraphy. No snappy colors. “Just” an embossed design of large beads forming a necklace and one small one coming with a small two colored bead in the center. It has been hidden for so long! copyright Daniel Tretiak 2013