Yozo Hamaguchi (1909-2000) is an artist active in the latter half of the 20th century. He pioneered a new technique called color mezzotint, and produced color expressions with soft depth and tranquility.

Among copper-plate engravings, mezzotint in particular, is one of the unfamiliar techniques in Japan, but it has a unique texture that one will never forget once seeing it.

In this exhibition, together with Yozo Hamaguchi’s works, novels about print works by mezzotint are introduced. They are a ghost story by British author Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), a science fiction novel about time by Kaoru Kitamura (1949-), and a brilliant short story by Kunio Tsukamoto (1920-2005) who is also a poet.

The print works in these novels carry the atmosphere of their respective eras and each work have an irreplaceable sense of presence within the novel. Please appreciate the feeling of mezzotint in literature along with approximately 50 copper-plate engravings by Yozo Hamaguchi.

Standing in front of Yozo Hamaguchi’s copper-plate engravings, one will be wrapped in the softness and tranquility of colors.

Together with the works of Yozo Hamaguchi, we introduce three artists who seek after delicate and clear expressions in the present age.

KUWABARA Hiroaki, an artist who creates a quiet world inside of a scope that can be wrapped in one’s hand.

TAKASHIMA Susumu, who eliminates subjectivity and continues to draw for materials and tools.

MAEDA Masayoshi, who puts ingenuous dreams into small moving sculptures.

Small shapes and delicate lines include far-reaching breadth.

This is an exhibition of expression that can be called a modest solemnity.

Please appreciate the works of four artists, which invite you from the horizon to the sky and to eternity.

We invited Ms. YANAI Midori, an art historian, as an exhibition adviser.

KUWABARA Hiroaki

Inside the brass scope, a small chair, etc., are locked in, that fits on one’s fingertips. When looking through it with a light through several holes of the scope, it looks as if time changes, or unexpected scenery appears depending on the angle of the light.

TAKASHIMA Susumu

All the works are drawings using materials that change the thickness of the lines.

The lines drawn by brushes are thick and deep at the beginning when they contain ink, and they become gradually thin and then faint.  To the contrary, lines drawn by color pencils or core metal are thin at the beginning when they are sharpened and gradually become thick.

By repeating these lines of varying thickness regularly and filling the whole drawing by them, works are born that can be said to be crystals of lines unique to each material.

MAEDA Masayoshi

Small moving sculptures address quietly. Simple lines perform the flow of time like poetry, and drawing out pure dreams and forgotten memories and emotions of inside of one’s heart.

At this exhibition, pictures and small moving sculptures are exhibited together.

Demonstrations of the small moving sculptures will be at 11:30 and 14:30 every day, and around 18:30 on night museum days.

HAMAGUCHI Yozo

The works are characterized by soft black that is created by carving a copper-plate over a long period of time.

They bring a feeling of tranquility and eternity.