Obata: Upper Lyell Fork, near Lyell Glacier in Yosemite (Sold)
Artist: Chiura Obata
Title: Upper Lyell Fork, near Lyell Glacier in Yosemite.
Date: 1930
Beautiful view of the Yosemite backcountry, two leafless trunks rising sculpturally in the foreground, a rushing stream and green forest behind. Our viewpoint seems to be along the John Muir Trail, as the trail comes close to the river and there are gentle (for Yosemite) slopes that rise behind the two tree trunks. Obata painted this view during his six-week hike through Yosemite in 1927; he then had prints made from his original paintings by Japanese artists in the following years. He collected water from streams to mix his pigments and painted in the open air. He said of the trip: “This experience was the greatest harvest for my whole life and future in painting...”
According to the Takamizawa booklet, this print required 113 impressions to create. For this design to be effective, as here, it must be completely unfaded. There is soft purple on the rocks and painterly strokes in the sky and on the green grass. This very scarce series of woodblock prints represent the pinnacle of 20th century woodblock printing; no other artist has ever attempted what Obata achieved here, and the printers and carvers who could create such masterpieces have long since left this earth.
Obata is quoted as saying “Tiny water drops that drip from the glaciers in the High Sierra collect themselves into a body of clear blue crystalline water and dash down the mountainside as the Lyell Fork” (Obata’s Yosemite, pg. 52).
From the World Landscape series, the groundbreaking effort that Obata spent all his savings on creating with the highest possible standards. The project employed more than 32 carvers and 40 printers for eighteen months. In order to give the effect of a watercolor, scores of blocks were used for each design, and specially prepared paper was made. Reportedly 400 impressions of each of the 35 compositions were made, with only the finest 100 selected for the portfolio, and the 10,500 “less perfect” impressions were destroyed. Note that there is no difference between signed and unsigned works from this series.
Obata wrote that “The reason I thought of woodblock prints is that the most advanced woodblock printing is in Japan...I wanted to preserve the art of my impressions of my travel in the High Sierra through the woodblock prints. It took a lot of effort. My hope was very difficult to achieve because it is difficult to make a woodlblock print which expresses each touch of paint.” (Obata’s Yosemite, page. 53).
This example has unusually strong colors and no foxing at all.
Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Margin has a darkened strip along top of print, although this work was never framed.
Provenance: Estate of Chiura Obata
Publisher: Takamizawa
Literature: “Obata’s Yosemite”, page 52. See Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The deYoung Museum has the original watercolor for this print; it was gifted by the Estate in 2020. See also the Crystal Bridges Museum.
SKU: OBA135