Catalog: Fine Art: Prints (178)

[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.

Daniel Tretiak, after publishing his book The Life and Works of Haku Maki in 2007, found that he had more to say about prints as they came into his life. And so, from time to time, he wrote Research Notes and published them on this site. For Note 1, he wrote the following: This is a collage of Maki prints depicting the tokkuri (sake bottle). We have added images of most of the prints here. Enjoy. Be Sure to CLICK Above as directed, please.

Daniel Tretiak, after publishing his book The Life and Works of Haku Maki in 2007, found that he had more to say about prints as they came into his life. And so he wrote Research Notes and published them on this site.

78-2 (Water) In 1978 Haku Maki was nearing the end of his artistic effort using kanji (Chinese characters) as the main theme of his work. This print is one bold kanji, for Water. To make it easier for his gaijin admirers to know what it meant, he wrote "water' in the bottom margin. The effect if the print is bold, the character stretches across the paper; it has a gold Sun (akin to a splash for accent and decoration, near the center of the print), and the characteristic Maki seal in the lower right area. This is 183/203., This image appeared around the same time as other large, single character ones: Mountain, Bamboo, Flavor and Heart, etc. This print is in what one might call a medium size: Length is 17 ", width about 9-1/2 ". Shortly after, Maki did Water as a large print, roughly 16" x 32". The condition is very good, not perfect. There is a little foxing on the front please write to me for any questions. During his lifetime, 1924 to 2000, Maki did well over 2000 images, making him one of Japan's most prolific print makers. He was also very good. His prints are clear, deceptively simple, standout, very Japanese but not representational.

This note is the fourth in the series of Research Notes.

In 1968 and 69 Haku Maki produced Poem 5 for Festive Wine. That image was a paradigm of clarity as to what the kanji or Woman ought to look like. It was a smooth svelte character. Yet at this same time, he also did this print, a tall gangly woman. It is Poem 69-50. She looks as if she is askelter, not all “together”. Or is the left leg longer than the right one? The print itself is done in the Maki manner: Size 10.5 “ x 10.5”. Maki used splashes on his prints to give dynamism to the field: sometimes just one, sometimes two. Here: a yellow and red splash and a Maki seal.

This note is the fifth in Daniel Tretiak's series of research notes.

The striking kanji means Rising. Maki produced this image in 1970 as a modest black on white print. This print is Poem 70- 48 (rising): The kanji,which is the print's core theme, is reiterated in the title. When this print first came out, it must have in a winner: 59/151 . This print has a golden yellow sun and a light blue tear or splash to give it verve. This is the Maki style. A year later in 1971 Maki produced a Big Red, the same character shown here was done as a Red kanji in striking image. Poem 71-50.

Haku Maki was an important Japanese modern print maker of the second half of the 20th Century. In the 1970s his work consisted of many abstract images of Chinese characters, kanji. Most are quickly recognizable by Chinese and Japanese. This one has befuddled and even annoyed some Asians who normally like Maki kanji. Here Maki is "in your face" a bit with a strong kanji that was translated into English, Nothing, by the artist Good friends like variations of this kanji: please open the link fully to see other Nothings.

Poem 70-72. This striking Maki Big Red has had a long history for being just 40 years old. It has seen the world and is now back in Asia, in Beijing. This is as near to Tokyo, where it was created by Maki, that it has been in many years. In this case, the big red letter is the hiragana "chi" ‚¿ or shiru, which means to know, find out, to learn, or have knowledge. This is a wonderful sweeping red stroke (actually two strokes) which whooshes across the black background like a meteor or comet streaking through the night. As knowledge cuts through ignorance perhaps. The cement was deeply incised to create the print. Maki normally used kanji in his prints; this is a rare case in which he used hiragana The red hiragana in the center is set off by a black Sun and a blue or purple splash to put a little color in the back sky. Size 24” x 17”. This print shows a rare use of hiragana by Maki. 41/106 Copyright by Daniel Tretiak

This Maki Big Red has the Kanji (Chinese character) for Flower as its theme. The Flower is red and strong; it is set off by a black Sun to the right. A blue tear balances the sun on the left. Maki’s seal in red ink paste, is below the tear, also at the left. Although Maki himself printed this image, the ink looks as if it was layered on by hand. This is 133/154; Print size is about 11” x 18”. We note: the paper in this print is smooth, it does not have the moon-surface effect. In 1969 and running just through 1974, Maki did a series of these bold Big Red prints. He did at most 15 Big Reds. One friend has asked did he do Big images in other colors. He only did a smattering in Blue and Green.

A diptych of Maki prints, one done in 1968 and the other in 1969. In the best of Maki's spartan austere style, they are Poem 68-40 and Poem 69-13.

Haku Maki produced this “pair” of prints in 1968. The first image is Child. This is the first time Maki produced an image with Child as a theme. Poem 68-52. The second one is his kanji for Water. Poem 68-53. This image was used again in the set of 21 prints he produced for Festive Wine, which was issued in 1969. The colors in both are strikingly beautiful in these images – as they also are as prints. Maki signed each in white ink, something he rarely did. Both prints have had hard lives, they were actually folded. Now they have been wonderfully restored.

In 1968 Haku Maki produced this large Blue image of Child. The blue is vivid and the yellow face is in sharp contrast. To the far right is a small Green Child, the same theme, different key color. It appeared in 1969. The red image is a trial run for a Festive Wine print. It never made it. The translators of Festive Wine or Anne Brannen nixed it and used a different Child image, the fifth frame. It might appear that the block used to produce all thee was the same; however, the Blue image is considerably larger than that used for the red and green ones. Blue one is Poem 68-53 12.26" x 16.25"

Haku Maki (1924 to 2000) was an important late 20th Century Japanese printmaker. He created images often using kanji (originally: Chinese characters) as the theme for his prints. He created about 2000 different images. Many are known. Here I present a number of images which I had never seen until this year even as I have gathered many. I still lack the image for Autumn in this series: any assistance in finding it would be most appreciated winter was formerly in the John and Joyce Meyer Collection in Seattle. The last image is of a 1972 Maki rendering of all four seasons.

These are 3 different “takes” of the kanji for Stone. Red is Work 74-58 (Stone) ; Green is 76-56 (Stone); Blue is 76-54 (Stone). The green one is larger than the other two. All have the striking black sun as one stroke of the kanji.

In The Life and Works of Haku Maki I refer fairly briefly to his Big Reds and other large prints of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this Research Note I present a more thorough compendium of this type of image and commentary. If any readers know of an image which should be in this Note, please let me know. For now please enjoy these. Poem 70-63 (Me) was acquired in 2010. Poem 71-90 ed of 108 Dance 69-2 NOTE: This is the first part of a two-part note. The second part is Note 7 B.

(continued) the last two panels show the same kanji for Rising in two different designs. Maki seemed to have liked this theme. Big Red is Poem 71-50; it was preceded by Poem 70-48 a smaller print. These are shown below.