Munakata Shikko: Japanese Master of the Modern Print

Very well packaged and in amazing condition

Amazing artist

AMAZING COMPILATION OF MUNAKATA'S WORK

excellent

Amazing!

It was present and the recipient loves it .apparently very good

The best of what is now five volumes in my personal library devoted to the works of Munakata Shiko, this text tops them all for its sheer variety as it contains reproductions of some art I've seen nowhere else. I fairly gushed over this great hardcover collection when it arrived. Though I've always loved Munakata's ragged, rough and raw approach to shin hanga (to see photos of the man with his nose to the level of the wood he's engraving is to be aware of his close devotion to his craft), and his chunky black prints with their sometimes scribble-like quality grabbed my attention since first encountering them in galleries in Japan when I lived there in the early 1990s, I'd simply had no idea of the artist's contribution to the world of ceramics, which was a delightful discovery. Included too are representations of Munakata's engravings of poems by Walt Whitman (complete with charming inverted letters and misspellings on occasion), as well as his calligraphy, which is as bold and brash as any of his prints, executed with brush strokes of ferocity yet finesse. When I think of Munakata's best work, it's monochromatic, but this text proves the artist's skill at use of colour as well. Munakata Shiko is truly a master artist with a singular vision and an excellent grasp of many media, and he deserves every accolade accorded him.