Catalog (175)

This is one of three research notes that were numbered 23. This one is about Work 73-2, a Maki homage to a 19th-century Chinese writer. Dan Tretiak wrote: Enigma. The original eBay seller wrote this in his listing. He really got it right. Maki’s print has the four-character phrase as done by Deng in his writing in the 19th century We confirm Deng and Maki were in sync. The arrangement of Maki’s gold seal is more used in Chinese than Japanese. In any case ENJOY

This research note shows the blue print Poem 69-11.

This research note looks at rarely seen Maki prints including early ones like Work Mu 2, done in 1961, and Symbol 2 from 1957.

This, like many of his research notes, was an addendum to his book, The Life and Works of Haku Maki, which he published in 2007. He wrote an Appendix to the book called Chasing Maki. It is his story of buying prints and collecting images of Maki prints. This research note, written 10 years later, is about one of his chases, a chase that failed. Dan wrote: Please enjoy.

Daniel Tretiak wrote about prints that were new to him (in 2017) that included, in my (LDT)view, one of the strangest, hard-to-decipher prints that the artist ever did, Bai-1. It was an early one, created in 1958.

This note concerns Poem 70-38, a rarely seen Big Red. NOTE: Daniel Tretiak created the term Big Reds for Haku Maki's large works centered on large kanji in red, usually on a black background and often done in broad strokes. Large ones in blue or yellow or green came to be termed Big Blues, Big Yellows, Big Greens, and so forth.

persimmons galore. 81-3 added. * means I own it.

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.

Haku Maki's print Maki Poem 69-66 78 of 154

Haku Maki did quite a number of prints using persimmon as a main theme Probably well over 100 He also began doing prints with ceramics around 1980 He probably did more than 100 ceramics theme prints. But the two there only came together in the persimmon and blue vase print shown here (and in an equally rare one with a persimmon and a strikingly beautiful yellow vase also shown here). This persimmon and vase print was done in 1975 and is quite rare: It is work 75-2 94/202 The two persimmon print is simply titled Persimmon. It is 62/150. Speaking as one outside the culture, the persimmon could represent transience. Once picked, they have a brief period of perfection before decay. Maki's images often evoke this feeling: the autumn leaf, the bare branch, the single flower or fruit. What do you think?

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

figure Figure 1 is a dark and brooding big red just received so dark even out of frame and matte maki s first big red appeared in 1963 this is an abstract rendering of the kanji for woman she seems to be standing there swaying ever so slowly this print has a good green blue sun at the upper left Here no splashes yet to add color figure 3 figure 3 here figure 4 alsom here

Figure 1 is a dark and brooding big red just received so dark even out of frame and matte maki s first big red appeared in 1963 this is an abstract rendering of the kanji for woman she seems to be standing there swaying ever so slowly this print has a good green blue sun at the upper left Here no splashes yet to add color figure 3 figure 3 here figure 4 alsom here

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.

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."

In 1971 Haku Maki produced two large prints, one Sun and one Moon. Sun shows a dramatic sun with a red dash all surrounded by a gold field-- Poem 71-100. Poem 72-101 is Moon with a similar design. There is a dark spot in the center. Each print was produced in editions of 156. This pair was offered privately and on eBay by a very insightful seller from Tennessee. After these presumably successful runs Maki did a smaller pair, each with the same title and same design. Both Sun and Moon are surrounded by a fiery corona. The seller’s offerings were rare sightings;the small one from my collection is also quite rare. copyright 2014 daniel tretiak

The kanji for Peach appears in the uppper right of the print. 17 of 24 Haku Maki was one of the grand masters of the Sosaku-hanga print movement. Maki Haku (1924-2000) is the artistic name of Maejima Tadaaki, who was born in Ibaraki Prefecture. He had no formal art training, but was guided by the s¨­saku hanga leading artist Onchi Ko­shiro 1891-1955). Maki Haku is best known for his abstract-calligrapic prints. He distorted and rearranged characters and strokes to produce striking and serene images. Maki passed away in 2000; as a result his prints are rapidly escalating in price and value as this talented artist will no longer be producing his unique work. ¨adapted from Robert Berg's listing

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.