Fish and Lemon
Yozō Hamaguchi
Description
Hamaguchi Yôzô
Japanese, 1909–2000
Fish and Lemon
Showa period (1926–89)
1957–60
Mezzotint on paper
Museum purchase, 1960/2.56
Born to a wealthy family of soy sauce makers, Hamaguchi Yôzô went to study in France in his early 20s. There he learned oil painting, watercolor, and engraving, and revived the technique of mezzotint (a print made from engraving copper or steel plates where shadows are created by roughing up the plate, and lighter areas are made by scraping the area smooth). Eventually he developed an original technique, incorporating colors into the process. Long before his time, mezzotint had been abandoned due to its intrinsic difficulty and the arrival of photography. This print is a good example of his distinctive use of color.
Subject Matter:
This is a mezzotint print (a print made from engraving copper or steel places where shadows are created by roughing up the place, and lighter areas are made by scraping the area smooth). Although mezzotint had long before the artist's time been abandoned due to its intrinsic difficulty and the arrival of photography, Hamaguchi Yōzō revived the technique with dramatic prints such as this.
Physical Description:
This black and white print shows fish silhouetted in black at the bottom of the print slightly left of center. The background is various shades of gray created by criss-crossed lines, and a lemon hovers in the air in the upper right side of the print.
Usage Rights:
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