Artist Birthday: Minami Keiko

Minami and her husband moved to Paris in 1953. There Minami studied in the studio of Johnny Friedlaender (1912–1992), a pioneer in printmaking, particularly aquatint etching. While in Paris, she was greatly influenced by the work of Paul Klee (1879–1940). Klee's work was influenced by children's art and music.

Artist birthday for February 12th: Minami Keiko (1911–2004 France, born in Japan)

Keiko Minami was a sōsaku hanga (creative print) artist, a group of printmakers (primarily woodcut) who created the drawing, carved the woodblock and printed the image, as opposed to the traditional separation of artist drawing, woodblock carver, and printer.

Minami Keiko, Taking Flight, 1958, color aquatint and etching on paper, 57.2 x 38.1 cm

Minami and her husband moved to Paris in 1953. There Minami studied in the studio of Johnny Friedlaender (1912–1992) , a pioneer in printmaking, particularly aquatint etching. While in Paris, she was greatly influenced by the work of Paul Klee (1879–1940). Klee's work was influenced by children's art and music.

This lovely print demonstrates many of the elements and prinicples of art:  line, assymetrical balance, and positive/negative space. Minami has deftly combined the simplified forms of Paul Klee (1879–1940), with the inherent lyricism of Japanese mingei (folk art), in which, too, forms are simplified to flat shapes and lines.

Sōsaku hanga (creative print) was a movement that had its origins in Japan as a reaction to the rapid industrialization of the country after its “opening “ to western powers. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a great debate in Japan in artistic and literary circles about expressions of “self”.  

This was in part influenced by the Japanese exposure to European modernism: many Japanese artists travelled to Europe during the 1890s. Another factor was the reaction by young artists during the first decade of the 20th century to stifling cultural strictures and the establishment in 1907 of the Japan Fine Arts Academy, which looked upon printmaking as a “minor art.”  

Artists of the creative print movement primarily considered themselves painters. Many of them emulated modernist movements in the West, and were not broadly accepted among an established art hierarchy that still considered painting the highest of “fine art.”

 It was only in 1927 that printmaking was accepted by the Japan Fine Arts Academy as art. By that time, however, many Japanese artists were experimenting with modernism. Only after World War II did Japanese modernist prints gain worldwide recognition, thanks in some part to American patronage of  works that reflected western abstraction, a perception of the blending of East and West.

Keiko Minami was a painter and printmaker who followed her husband Hamaguchi Yozo (1909–2000) to Paris after World War II (1939–1945). Both were sōsaku hanga artists. Minami’s lyrical, fairy-tale like images were eventually commissioned by UNESCO and UNICEF.

This image is in/supplemental to the following Davis programs:
Explorations in Art 2E, 4th Grade, Unit 1.8 -- Shape and Structure, Looking at Trees
A Global Pursuit 2E, Unit 7 Artists Reveal Nature, 7.1 -- Exploring the Unit Theme, Seeing Nature in Art
The Visual Experience 3E, Chapter 3 Line -- Descriptive Line, Individual Line
Davis Collections, Women Artists 1900s