Spring Field

Dimensions: 15 ½ x 11 ¼ in. (39.37 x 28.58 cm)

Markings: (in pencil at bottom of print) 8/35 Spring Field Artist's signature: (in pencil at bottom of print) Tokio Miyashita

From 1946 through 1948, Tokio Miyashita studied woodcut printing techniques with Hiratsuka Unichi; a year later he studied metal plate printing processes with Komai Tetsuro and Sekino Junichiro. His early works are representational, focusing on the neighborhood in Tokyo where he was raised. In the early 1960’s he began to experiment, combining printing processes with knowledge and materials he gained from his father, who was a metal dealer. He developed his signature rough black line by soldering wire to zinc etching plates. As he progressed as an artist his compositions became increasingly planar, impressing the viewer with a feeling of looking through or into another world. He was represented in numerous biennales internationally such as Tokyo 1960-68, Ljubljana 1965 and 1968, and Sao Paulo 1967. His prints can be found in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the British Museum, London.

This print exemplifies the beginning of Miyashita’s experimentation in combining printmaking processes. By this point in his career he had moved from representational to abstract work and began to develop the dark soldered wire line that would become his trademark. Here we see the rough mark separating colors, textures, and objects within an imagined space, combining intaglio and woodcut processes.