Hasegawa Kiyoshi: The Trajectory of a Paris-based Printmaker
(Works from the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts Collection)Closed

1.A Wealth of Masterworks by Hasegawa Kiyoshi

For the first time, the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts presents its celebrated collection of works by Hasegawa Kiyoshi outside the museum. The exhibition surveys his career, from the lucidly composed early works made before he left for France, through the years of inquiry in Paris when his study of copperplate techniques honed the artistry of his line, to the late mezzotints, whose depths of black are charged with silent spirituality.

2.A Vivid Picture of Hasegawa’s Life in Paris

Hasegawa began his career as a printmaker in 1920s Paris, where he joined the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Indépendants at the invitation of the painter and printmaker Raoul Dufy. Alongside his work of this period, the exhibition presents outstanding contemporaneous works by painters in his circle, including Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Jean-Émile Laboureur, and André Dunoyer de Segonzac.

3.The French Edition of Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) in Its Entirety

Hasegawa’s French edition of Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) is a masterpiece of the illustrated book medium, fusing Japanese tradition and Western culture. Its engraving and drypoint illustrations unfold with stately refinement, their crisply incised lines creating an atmosphere of dignity and grace. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the complete suite (illustrations printed on separate sheets), which was included only in the deluxe edition.

Hasegawa Kiyoshi was born in Yokohama in 1891, and from boyhood he gazed at the foreign ships coming and going in the harbor and dreamed of distant lands. This section features covers and frontispieces he began producing for literary magazines in 1913, alongside prints by Odilon Redon, Wassily Kandinsky, William Blake, and other artists who influenced him.

In 1919, Hasegawa moved to France to study copperplate printmaking. There he mastered advanced techniques such as engraving, in which the plate is incised with a burin, and revitalized the classical technique of manière noire (mezzotint), then falling into disuse, through an approach entirely his own. This section presents Hasegawa’s works categorized according to technique.

n the early 1920s, Hasegawa met the Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy, who invited him to join the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Indépendants, which Dufy was involved in founding. As Hasegawa broadened the scope of his activities, he drew increasing notice in the Paris printmaking world. This section places Hasegawa’s works from the 1920s and 1930s alongside works by fellow members of the Société, among them Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Jean-Émile Laboureur.

Hasegawa said that it was only after moving to France that he came to appreciate “the dignity of Japan.” He began producing copperplate prints based on Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) in the late 1920s, and completed an illustrated book in 1933. This section features Hasegawa’s exquisite illustrated book, to which he devoted the closest attention, from the frontispiece and lettering design to the choice of paper.

Hasegawa remained in France during World War II. He continued his work despite material and emotional hardship, and it was during this time that he came to see even the most ordinary trees and plants as imbued with mystery. This section presents prints from the war years and after in which Hasegawa rendered natural forms in lucid, minute detail.

In the late 1950s Hasegawa returned to traditional manière noire (mezzotint), producing still lifes charged with symbolism set against deep, pitch-black grounds. This section brings together the landmark works of his late years, marking the culmination of an artistic career that endured through turbulent times.