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All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1271523 (stock #141111)
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In 1970 the famous collector of Japanese art Felix Juda commissioned Haku Maki to produce at least 3 different sets of cards for greeting and thanks. Here we show three. The 4th image may have been one such card or a small print. I have owned it for many years and am still studying it. The ones done for Juda varied in attractiveness. The green one is vintage Maki: good design, good color, and good composition. It is only 5”x 5” but packs a wallop. It shows the kanji for Stone (pronounced To in Japanese) with a small yellow sun added for oomph It is the functional equivalent of a splash. The balance and integrity of the print are clear. The other Juda collection images vary from bizarre to plain. The one with four different images includes a pair of pursed lips, an eye and what? The other shows what I think can be a fishhook. How many other images did Maki do for Juda? Felix Juda collected many works by the famous Onchi Koshiro who of course was Maki’s first and only teacher. The student honored the teacher by doing this series for the teacher’s fan, Juda. I believe all were done in or about 1970. They have the style of that year even as they were not dated. The little blue at the right is also untitled; it may have been done for Juda too It shows a crescent moon and two kanji -- nice balance, nice composition. The last 3 may also be from the Juda Collection but I am not certain. Juda (1909 – 1997) was a senior investment director of Sutro & Co. of Los Angeles , where he was born and died.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1266165 (stock #3030)
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This note looks at newly emerged prints that were created between 1968 and 1980. They include Work 616 (Moon and Bird) and the Figure series of prints.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1262324 (stock #140908)
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This is a rare Maki production--a book plate.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1259877 (stock #3029)
The Tretiak Collection
This note discusses newly emerged prints (it was written in July 2014). Daniel Tretiak wrote: Please enjoy. I own A C W and Flower Song 5.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1257558 (stock #140720)
The Tretiak Collection
SOLD
In 1966 Haku Maki produced one of his many abstract series. He did Cell and he did Proportion Here I show Proportion 10 the white strokes appear against a beautiful yellow background . Above the strokes is a white Sun. Wow there are two Maki seals one at the top right and another at the lower left There is a red splash in the center .two images f Proportion 9 are added where are Proportion 1 through 8? 43/50
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1950 item #1255333 (stock #140701)
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Haku Maki did these huge prints from 1970 to 1973. This is Poem Reconciliation done in 1970. It is a big image; it boldly flows across the paper. It is clean not busy, dramatic and elegant. It is from an edition of 50. I have only ever seen this one number of the edition. It has a dazzling yellow sun and sharp red tear that balance the kanji in the center. It is signed and chopped and re-signed in black ink next to the chop. Everything clicks. It is 35in x 35in.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1255242 (stock #3028)
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This huge print Work 73-54 (Fish) is one of three unusually large prints Maki did. It measures 3ft x 6ft. Please see the research note that is included with the photos.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1249529 (stock #3027)
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Please read the research note in frame 12 of the photos. There apparently was some misnumbering--there is no Note 13.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1247656 (stock #140426)
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Haku Maki's Poem Z depicts a Heart by any other name. Maki began to use this theme early in his artistic life. The character was often vertical but this is the only time it was at an angle from the center and seemingly lacking in one stroke, Hence it is an unusual design and intellectually challenging. Its meaning is not immediately evident even to the literati. My curator in Beijing figured it out when she was opening the package and tilted it a bit. The print is large and subtle. This is Poem Z. As such it is the last in the Maki alphabet series of 1967.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1242645 (stock #140315)
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SOLD
This is a brilliant example of Haku Maki's Big Red prints, his frequent use of a large red character on a black background.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1241967 (stock #140309)
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I first saw this print in a small pamphlet from White Lotus Gallery in Oregon, acquired the print in ways that Du Yuesheng would be proud of and it has rested here for over two years It is a small print but it packs a punch. It shows a prancing dancing woman. What do you think? The kanji in the center of the print is set off by a tear at the left and a sun at the right. It measures 5.75” x 8.5”.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1241456 (stock #140315)
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This is a surprisingly good kanji It was done in 1972,slightly beyond Haku Maki's core period for such small kanji. It is the character for Mu or Nothing It is a very abstract depiction of the character, more so than most of Maki’s rendering of Nothing, which he did many times. This image is sharp and concise and it has drive. It has the Maki style and balance:a seal and the bottom margin. The seal at the right is balanced off by the splash at the left
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1237640 (stock #140201)
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Let's discuss
Work 73-56 L (fish). This is the second of Maki’s three huge prints that I have owned. This is Work 73-56 L (fish). Several aspects of this image are intriguing. My archive of Maki prints reveals that Maki produced over 100 different images in 1973. I have been able to account for many of them: 1 to 50 and 99 to 110. I had never known what went in the middle. Now I know at least one was work 73-56, the third huge print that Maki did. It is 3 x 6 feet. All the others—73-57 to 73-98—remain to be revealed by others. This print is laudable not only for its huge size. The third of Maki‘s thee huge prints, it lacks a sun or moon or even a color splash. Frame 12 shows the black splash. The space is admirably taken up by the calligraphy of the character. One colleague says that the image reminds him of a whale. Indeed, not a minnow, to be sure. Sometimes I think it is not just one fish but a school of fish swimming up stream, each brush stroke being a fish in itself. It is so vivid that Maki must have felt, 40 years ago when he did it, that it did not need a sun or moon. Between Work 73-60 and 73-100 we have no record of any print appearing. Since our records are good but unable to create prints, we suspect Maki did all these images but they are yet to appear. Where are they hiding? One friend suggests the brown stain on the print is not coffee; Minckler also feels it is not coffee, some dark liquid if not what is it? I will know in a few days. Where did this print spend its life? One friend has suggested that, since it surfaced in Tokyo framed, it spent lts life in Japan. If so, the story is curious and curious-er. I suspect it spent most of its life in the US and for some reason it returned to Japan where it was sold at an auction there for a song and some one made a mint selling it to this Olde Man in Beijing. Gomenasai my eye. I am grateful to Michael Minckler for the photos of the print he is restoring. Frame 1 image shows curling, which occurred in shipping and will disappear not paper separation dt the print back side up in Minckler’s studio It is clean – no more stain voila
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1232837 (stock #131222)
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65-2 Proportion 10 sold
Maki’s earliest works were done in the late 1950s and remained rather unknown until the late 1960s. He first started producing prints using red ink in 1965 and this is probably the first example. It is also what I call a Big Red. It is very abstract and it fills up the whole sheet. Maki wanted his prints to have balance. This has it: the red field is pierced by three blue squares: two on the left side of the orange meteor-like strokes, and one on the right side. The field is composed of small squares of horizontal and/or vertical strokes.The print is 16.1 x 22.9inches(41 x 58.4cm). I think this print is better than Heap-like prints but on a par with the Emanation 65B print shown in the last frame of this listing. This Big Red has a weaker paper than later prints; why? Michael Minckler holds the view that the reason is Maki was still working his way toward the two-layer paper that came to characterize much of his work from 1966 on. Two layers make for a stronger paper and allows for larger prints. A thinner paper does not lend itself to large prints--which Maki evidently wanted to make. By the same token the image in frame 8 of a Maki print done in 1958 is embossed but on paper thinner than the 1965 print shown here:Maki was working his way to The Maki Style. Proportion 10 done in 1966 also shows the embossing in full play with bold abstract calligraphy. The yellow print Proportion 10 is 50 x 40 cm.It is a very early print using two sheets of paper.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1990 item #1227773 (stock #131119)
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Another of Maki's all-white prints, this one is of a Chinese coin. wu wei zhi zu Frame 5 shows the Han dynasty coin which inspired this 1981 print.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1980 item #1222919 (stock #131020)
The Tretiak Collection
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.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 1970 item #1219371 (stock #3025)
The Tretiak Collection
Daniel Tretiak's Research Note 12 took a look back at Haku Maki's works from 1965 to 1970.
All Items : Fine Art : Prints : Pre 2000 item #1219188
The Tretiak Collection
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.