Maki Haku

Background

Haku Maki was born in Aso-machi in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1924, as Maejima Tadaaki. In the late 1950s, he selected the name Haku Maki to show his humility and self-styled confusion. If translated literally, "Maki" is Roll, "Haku" is White.

Education

He had no formal art training, but was guided by the sōsaku hanga leading artist Onchi Kōshirō.

Career

Two unique qualities of Maki Haku prints are the textures achieved by working the designs in wet cement and the use of Kanji (Chinese characters) as design motifs.

In 1962, he started adding texture to his prints. At first, he added texture to the entire sheet after it was printed.

In 1965, he began embossing designs into unprinted paper by using a press to transfer a design created in cement on a carved plywood board, and then adding color with stencils. He distorted and rearranged the strokes of Chinese characters to produce striking and serene images.

For example, Poem 71-91 is a highly stylized representation of the kanji, which is pronounced mu and means nothingness, an important concept in some forms of Buddhism.

The artist participated in the Tokyo International Print Biennale in 1957 and 1960. The book Festive Wine: Ancient Japanese Poems from the Kinkafu is a translation of 21 ancient poems called Kinkafu or Music for Wagon Songs. The translation is accompanied by Maki Haku's prints that were made in 1968 - 69. The Art Institute of Chicago, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are among the public collections holding prints by Haku Maki.

Achievements

• Maki Haku is best known for his abstract-calligraphic prints. He distorted and rearranged characters and strokes to produce striking and serene images.
  
  Maki produced about 2000 different images. This makes him one of the most prolific Japanese print makers of his day. Yet he did not keep a running list of the prints as he made them.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Work 625

  • 75-56 (Dragon)

  • Poem 70-83

  • Poem 72-52

  • Halo-1

  • Poem 71-10

  • Work 71 - 1

  • JI-1 (A) 1991

  • Poem 70-11

  • Poem 69-55

  • Harmony (Wa)

  • Poem 70-61

  • Kaki Z-4

  • Poem 68-41

  • Incres-2

  • Untitled

  • Poem 71-86 AP

  • Mark No. 2 (Fame)

  • Poem Q

  • Sun-3

  • Go-1 (B)

  • Work 81-09

  • 72-44

  • Untitled Composition

  • Poem 7

  • Zengo-1

  • Poem 69-46

  • Poem 69-11

  • Work 74-59

  • Untitled

  • Poem 70-3

  • Tortoise A

  • 75-60

  • Poem 68-44

  • Poem 72-39

  • Poem 69-67

  • Poem 71-39

  • Poem 69-41

  • Proportion -10

  • Poem 69-27

  • Poem 70-5

  • Poem 71-85 B

  • Poem 68-51

  • Poem-Z

  • Poem 70-91

  • Moon

  • Work 75-17 (Step)

  • Thunder-1

  • Persimmon

  • Shell 2

  • Poem 69-26

  • Poem 72-9

  • Poem-P

  • Poem 68-55

  • Poem-1 (Mu)

  • Emanation - 71

  • Thunder-2

  • 75-57 (Water)

  • Snow

  • Poem 2

  • Poem 70-6 (Turtle)

  • Work 73-41

  • Work 73-24

  • Poem 18

  • Poem 70-84

  • Moon

  • Poem 70-76

  • Grass

  • 71-2

  • Heap 4

  • Work 73-101

  • Work 73-18

  • Collection - 18

  • Poem 69-53

  • Untitled

  • Poem 72-24

  • Poem-5

  • Collection 85-8

  • Poem 72-57

  • Poem - A (心)

  • Go 2(B)

  • Poem 69-3

  • Work 81-05

  • 76-25

  • Poem 69-42

  • Poem 68-33

  • Poem-5

  • Poem-U

  • Figure

  • Poem 70-66

  • Winter Tree (work 74-72)

  • Tokkuri

  • Work 73-35 (Space)

  • Poem 71-84

  • Dazzlement II

  • Work 73-45

  • Poem 70-4

  • Poem 69-43

  • Poem 70-63

  • Untitled

  • Collection - 27 (Stone)

  • Poem 71-36

  • Poem 72-8

  • Poem 69-8

  • Kuma-921

  • Poem 71-90, Woman

  • Symbol 61-1

  • Poem 90-47

  • Poem

  • Poem 69-52

  • Work 73-50-A (Nothing)

  • Poem 71-58

  • Kaze

  • Poem 71-62

References

• The Life and Works of Haku Maki Haku Maki was a highly innovative Japanese printmaker of the second half of the 20th century. His prints often had a three-dimensional quality, derived from the embossing which Maki used in much of his work.