Sekino Jun’ichirō one of the modern masters of engraving
This painter, born in Japan in 1914, was one of the most outstanding artists of the Sosaku Hanga movement, an important movement in Japanese art. He developed his artistic career as a graphic designer and xylographer*.
Sekino enjoyed quite diverse styles, techniques and themes, and in his work you can see how he went from figurative to abstract art, from black and white compositions to colorful expression with amazing ease. In the artist’s work, the mixture of Western and Japanese techniques is also appreciated.
He grew up in the city of Aomori with Shiko Munakata, a renowned Japanese artist, studying printmaking and oil painting.
Already in 1936, the government awarded him a Bunten prize for his etching and three years later he moved to the capital, where he joined the Sosaku Hanga movement and studied with one of his fathers: Koshiro Onchi.
During the war, he worked in a munitions factory, as artistic life in Japan during these years had literally come to a standstill.
After the war ended, Sekino began producing book illustrations that helped him survive the post-war years.
It was during the 1950s that Sekino’s work had its best period.
His works were also exhibited outside of Japan and purchased by European and American entities such as the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It is from then on that he began to travel with his work all over the world, occupying years later a position, as a professor, at the University of Kobe.
If you want to know more about the work of this author, you can do it on the web: www.sekinoworld.com
* Xilography is a woodblock printing technique. The desired text or image is carved by hand with a gouge or burin in the wood. A single array (also called a wad) is typically used for each page.
