Catalog: Fine Art: Prints (178)

One of Maki’s favorite themes was the image shown here. Some outstanding ones are shown in the listing. I reckon Maki did about 25 different prints with the theme Child. Several little children can be seen swimming in the image in frame 9. The child in the right of this list panel is the image imprinted in the cover of Festive Wine, to which Maki contributed 21 images in 1969.

Maki Poem 616 earluy print still with single layer of paper. The image is of a Bird and Moon. This print has been fully restored

In 1970 Japanese print maker Haku Maki (1921 – 2000) produced this large Wind image. It is 84c x 84 cm; 33 " x 33" . Provenance; Maki produced this print and this copy was sold to a Japanese buyer it stayed in Japan until it came to me last week in Beijing this is one of the few times I have been able to obtain a Maki print from Japan not through a dealer. When the previous owner decided to sell he did so through an auction in Japan; then it was fully restore in Tokyo and I acquired it. Because of its size it may be called Big Wind or even more poetically Diviner Wind. The main image shows a rounded not square stroke for the outer part of the image. Within this perimeter there are three black strokes to fill out the kanji for Wind Then Maki added his own touches --a large Yellow Sun and a quite small brown splash. This fairly complex set of stokes is balanced off by Maki’s seal of the day and a black kanji for Maaki’s surname. Maki did a number of big prints However he seems to have done less than ten prints this large Two known to me were done in 1973; if he did more I have still to find them. This print is 32/ 50. 33" x 33" last image is Poem woman

Work 73-5 is a funny, lively snowman--or snow child. It is number 28 of an edition of 103 and measures 9.5in W x 17.5in H.

Maki's Emanation series may well have been 100 different images. This is an early one. It shows a young man ready to grope a woman’s breasts. Who is the man and who is the woman? Adam and Eve? Maki and his wife? Maki and another woman? It measures 16" x 16". Here I show images of the current emanation and single images of other prints in the Emanation series. The last frame is Emanation 100.

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.

Haku Maki did many prints some with interesting backgrounds some not. This modest run of rather large pints had a special black background: it is the texture of old leather. . Maki created and used this technique only in 1981 prints and mainly in persimmons. The persimmons are plump and meaty the green leaves of the fruit are nicely proportioned. Maki did only a few twin persimmon prints and none after 1980 except this one. 81-10 is in frame 2. It is 12 x 18 inches 46 cm x 32 cm “The stem and leaf of the persimmon tree are done in raised glossy black urushi lacquer. “ The persimmon appears in autumn in Japan (and China) and is associated with that season The other one is 81 31 only one known to me gray leather like black. 81 32 We have added 81-10. A single persimmon with the distinctive gray background. I do not know the title of the print in frame 5 8110, 30 31 40 no number 32 white 50

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

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.

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

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.