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."
Japan New Discoveries of Haku Maki prints As found by robert craft we think that these are new additions to our Maki Catalogue Raisonne
Dedicated with much love to my
wife Lois Jeanne Dougan Tretiak
copyright Feb 16 2018 PP aka Ph
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. Maki did this one and it was quite abstract It was the only Sunflower he did. It came late in life; it is a silk screen effort and interesting if not compelling. He used yellow and blue to depict the flower in this. I do not believe Maki did 777 of this or any image.
This wonderful print was a gift to Daniel Tretiak and me on the occasion of our wedding in June 1964.
Work 73-12A is a firm and strong dragon not fierce not wimpy. The central kanji is offset by a small yellow Maki sun at the top left and a red splash on the right. They counterbalance each other and give color and verve to the whole print.
[NOTE: I think my late husband Daniel Tretiak wrote this in 2007, after he got this site up and running.]
Daniel Tretiak has written a book, The Life and Works of Haku Maki, the important Japanese printmaker of the second half of the 20th Century. Maki toiled alone most of the time between 1960 and 2000. His output was substantial, most of it was cool, crisp, elegant. An example is shown above. I wrote about it: "The print in the center is the kanji for Me or I; it swooshes across the print, as if written with a big brush." It is Poem 71-25, done in 1971. It had an edition of 151. I own the print; I have only seen it offered once -- and I thought it was dramatic and beautiful then and still think so. As part of the print, Maki put his characteristic "splash", the yellow stroke which is part of yet a bit separate from the main image.
Now we add eight more images of prints by Haku Maki. They are all in the book and are all beautiful prints. The cover will be selected from these and the one that has been here for quite a while. Which one do you think will be the cover?
Here is a list of the images by year and number in the edition. (Note: this listing and the order of the images is still not perfect; this is a work in progress, sorry.)
1968 Zodiac Animal Song Monkey 11/50;
1969 Dance 4 96/105;
1970 Poem 71-25 (Me) 91/100;
1970 Poem 70-84 140/152;
1971 Poem 72-6 17/201;
1978 Collection 16 125/205;
1988 Z-1 Persimmon 18/100; and
1995 Zen 3-B 7/27;
Like the first image on this site: a good Maki print draws the eye toward the center, there is little clutter between the outer margin and the image depicted.
Maki's most well-known work may have been the illustrations he did for the translated volume, Festive Wine. But he did much more. His work was done in a modern way in a modern era -- yet it was based on many very traditional concepts (ancient and early kanji, ceramics, persimmons, and the like). His work is carefully discussed in this book.
This site is a work in progress, many things will change in the coming weeks.
Note: Text and images all covered by Copyright; use of them requires the expressed written permission of Daniel Tretiak, author of this book.
In 1960 Maki did the image shown. It is called Symbol. In all the years of collecting Maki prints and images I have never seen this one again. It is quite large but seems cluttered. Forty years later he did it as a print and a post card even as one friend has suggested he did the print before 1999, the date on the print. The seals are authentic not printed, and they are original Maki seals from well-used chops.
Haku Maki Poem-j 1966
seal script according to Robert Craft great condition
Japan Haku Maki Big Yellow
This lovely yellow print was created in 1970 It reveals two seal script characters of the Song dynasty This is the only copy ever seen
It is in great condition
In 1971 Haku Maki produced this large print, Poem 71-25. It was an edition of 100. This new arrival was produced in Tokyo and went ultimately to Florida in the US. It stayed there for a long time. In the course of its life there it was not treated nicely: It was folded in two places. The print had foxing, it had many ailments. Then it finally made it to my restorer. It had challenges there too: some liquid spilled on it, forcing a delay in the restoration process. It was painstakingly and carefully restored to its original beauty but it now tells a story a brand new print could not tell. It stayed in Oregon for six months. Then it finally left and zoomed out to me in Beijing. It arrived without warning. It is a very dramatic print It is a very Big Red and it appears very rarely. 21” x 32” 63/100
The red ink looks as if it were put on in thick strips, separate from the paper, and the "black sun” is shimmering.
The last three frames show how this print looked at the time of purchase.
NOTE: This is the print that my husband chose for the cover of his book, The Life and Works of Haku Maki.
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
The Tretiak Collection
$300.00
$300.00
Spectacular find set of 6: cups and saucers and teapot. all in very good condition. One tiny nick on one saucer.
The image on the left was done in 1970 the other in 1971. The image at the left looks like 2 or 3 quick brush strokes. It is very delicate. It can mean clothing.
The image at the right is heavy, many brush strokes, a complicated kanji. It can mean depression. It is Poem 71-14.