Kitaoka Fumio

Kitaoka Fumio ( Japanese 北 岡 文 雄 ; born January 11, 1918 in Tokyo Prefecture ; died April 22, 2007 ) was a Japanese woodblock print artist in the second half of the 20th century.

life and work

Kitaoka studied from 1936 to 1941 Western oil painting at the Tōkyō bijutsu gakkō , forerunner of the Tōkyō Art School . His teacher was the yoga painter Fujishima Takeji . In the last years of his apprenticeship he also turned to woodcuts, which he learned under Hiratsuka Un'ichi . In 1945 Kitaoka was sent to Manchuria to work within the Japanese government's Northeast Asia Culture Development Society. At the end of the war he managed to make his way to Japan with his wife and daughter. There he got to know the Chinese monochrome woodcut, which dealt with social issues. At the end of October 1946 he and his family arrived in Japan.

In 1947 Kitaoka published a portfolio under the title "Reise zurück ins Vaterland" ( 祖国 へ の 旅 , Sokoku e no tabi ), which is shaped by his way back. He now gave up painting and made prints, which he sold to the Americans stationed in Japan. The connection to the Americans came through participation in Onchi's “First Thursday Club” ( 一 木 会 , Ichimoku-kai ). Under Onchi's influence, he also dealt with abstract art, but then returned to his more realistic depictions of landscapes.

In 1955 he went to France to study wood engraving at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris . From 1964 to 1965 he taught in the USA. Kitaoka has been shown at exhibitions abroad, including in Lucerne and at the São Paulo Biennale .

Remarks

1. ↑ What is meant is a monthly meeting ( kai ) on the first ( ichi ) Thursday ( moku [yōbi] ).

literature

• Smith, Lawrence: Modern Japanese Prints. 1912-1989. Cross River Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .
• Merrit, Helen: Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints. The Early Years. University of Hawaii Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8248-1200-X .

Web links

• Woodcuts by Kitaoka