Catalog (284)

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.

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.

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.

In 1976 Haku Maki did three pairs of prints in which the black and white were reversed. One set is shown here. The cement blocks were used to print the white on black, then cleaned to do black on white. These were done in such themes as Mind Wind and Cloud. These are strong sweeping images in rather large prints. The two Wind images here are typical of the type. They are all about 15" x 20" and in editions of 150.

almost 11 cm tall Ears and head of monkey, stance and back and paws of lion, face of man. Is the only hole the one through the legs? Strange piece. The eyes are made of brass nails the nose and mouth of brass wire wooden and early in its life was lacquered--it seems to have vestiges of lacquer on it

In 1981 Haku Maki suddenly produced a modest series of prints with a vinyl (old leather)-like background. I have already written about several of these in my Research Note 8. Now I present another: a striking orange red persimmon with leaves tipped with a special Japanese lacquer and the background in vinyl. This is 81-31 and it is 175/190.

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

Poem 70-73 Taiwa (Level or peace), 31/106, 17.5”x 24.5”. Haku Maki produced this Big Green print in 1970. His Big prints-—large for him-—appeared mainly in the period 1968-75. This print, the only horizontal one of all his Big prints, depicts the kanji for Level, Peace and the like. I believe it has other meanings. When I first saw this image many years ago but had not seen the bottom margin clearly, I thought it was a stylized rendition of Woman, a very frequent Maki subject. The green print shown in the last frame in this listing shows the possibility of this also meaning Woman. And a large prone woman at that. The image looks like a Level, a carpenter’s tool for determining if a surface is or is not level. A level reveals its findings when little balls glide back and forth in their space. In the print, Maki’s suns—-two black and one yellow—-could also represent the balls of a level. Hence, this design could have a primary meaning with two back-ups or hidden meanings.

Haku Maki was a prolific artist of modern Japanese prints in the second half of the 20th century. Many of his prints are known but quite a few remain unseen, even in the Internet age. The Emanation series was large: Maki probably produced more than 100 different prints in the series. At this advanced age, I have only seen about 30 of the Emanation prints—-and have only managed to acquire a few. In Emanation 65B Maki has produced a very colorful print: the red core is set off by the orange strips or slashes at the center of the print. The dramatic white signature in English in the left corner enhances the whole print. This signature may be seen as a kind of splash, which came to be an integral part of many Maki prints. The texture of the print is Maki’s traditional rough style set off by the black background. The main colors—-red, orange and yellow—-are as fresh and vibrant as they were nearly 50 years ago when Maki produced this print. The print has no formal seal. It is the only Maki print I have ever seen without his characteristic seal or chop. The print measures 40cm x 57cm (20.5in x 16in). It was done in the mid-1960s. Its title Emanation 65B does not tell us the year of production, rather that it was done in the middle of the long production period of the Emanation series. In Maki’s early years, the editions were small; this is 29/50. This print has had a good life: it was in the possession of a collector in Sweden who cared for it well—-and then it arrived here. Copyright 2012 by Daniel Tretiak The circle at the right could be the sun or a young child

Work 73-6 Bizarre Maki. this print was done in early 1973 It is one of the ugliest Maki prints I have ever seen. In this period Maki did some of his largest prints and some also with seemingly weird qualities. But these big ones – easily seen to be a variation of Nothing or Mu—are not riddles. We know what they are because Maki told us what he meant. Here, he left no such advice. Several friends have also said they do not know what Maki meant So we leave it at that for now. 10.75 x 10.5 inch paper. Frame 6 shows a large Mu. The image is my new acquisition, somewhat like Work 73-6 but not understandable now.

In late 2011, I received several Maki prints of 1981. These all have leather-like surfaces. I thought this was a phenomenon of that year. I was wrong. Maki actually used this surface in 1971 for a few Persimmon prints and then not again until 1981. I show here copies from my Maki archives. When we filed those images a long time ago, they were not clear enough, are still not. But I think they are with that leather-like finish. Any views most gratefully received. My images are from catalogues. I do not own the actual prints. poem 71 -32 catalogue; poem 71-33 eBay; 71-43; poem 71-66

In 1968 Haku Maki completed his Animal Song series. It was 12 different prints, one for each year of the Chinese/Japanese zodiac. Each print had the title Animal Song and the kanji for the animal, which was not translated. This print, Animal Song [dragon], 14/50, is a beautiful Maki red. The dragon of the image is a very traditional Chinese character for dragon. In this print Maki used the theme dragon for the first time. This dashing abstract kanji seems to almost swirl out of the paper. When sold the print was not in perfect condition: it was bought “laid down” and we carefully and successfully removed the backing, which was made of old industrial use wax paper. That paper protected the back for nearly 50 yeas, hence the lovely clean back. Maki produced this print for the Red Lantern Gallery in Kyoto, which sold it. Dragon 15 “ x 15”. Maki only used this dragon style in a greeting card he designed for the dragon year of 1976. Images above include the pristine back and the back as it arrived.

who dunnit? in the style of tanaka ryohei etching

The strokes in this print are "U", no meaning. This is an early print using Hiragana. It is two brush strokes piercing the space, leaving a trace of itself before coming to the bottom of the paper. It has but one splash across the top and a red tear along the side and then: Whoosh it goes as in the red image at the bottom. There is one sun at the outer edge of the stroke and two moons inside the curving stroke. Not so simple after all.

Potato Z-8 12/24 Big kanji, big collage. Calligraphy and signature in silver ink. Excellent condition. 9.5" x 10.5"

Late in life, circa 1999, Japanese master print maker, Haku Maki, did this shikishiban print. It is called Z1-12 (WAZA); 7.25'' x 8.25''; Shikishiban is a nearly square format. Shikishiban are often mounted on a thick, light cardboard. Japanese people like to give them as presents. The print is in the US and will be shipped from there.

[Note: Daniel Tretiak wrote this in 2012.] This work is now 5 years old. I set forth the main aspects of the works of Haku Maki, the main themes of his work, the main aspects of his style, and the broad range of his works. I think I did not realize in 2007 the range and versatility of his work, its drama and subtlety. Since this book was published I have written 9 research notes and many descriptions of key works. Amazon and Ren Brown Collection distribute this book. rbc4art@renbrown.com

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