Jun'ichiro Sekino: Outskirts of Tokyo Etching

Artist: Junichiro Sekino (1914-1988)
Title: Outskirts of Tokyo  Date: 1948

Horses graze and a smokestack belches puffs of smoke that merge with the stylized clouds. The trees seem winter-bare, and a figure walks bundled up in the dark foreground. A low stone bridge divides the scene. The feeling is quite otherworldly, and we can feel the influence of the European artists whose etchings influenced Sekino. Diagonal lines are carefully incised across the  plate, lending a mysterious texture. We are not certain if this is a specific place or rather a place of memory for the artist. Numbered 4/20 and signed and titled in pencil by the artist. Scarce.

Sekino was born in Aomori, and he came to know Munakata Shiko as a young boy. Through Kon Juno, he learned western printing techniques like etching and lithography. In 1936, of Sekino’s etchings was accepted into a government- sponsored exhibition in Tokyo, and in 1939 he moved to Tokyo and became student of Onchi Koshiro. Sekino owned an etching press that he used for printmaking after the war–he opened this home studio to other artists and they used rationed materials to create art during the time of limited artists’ supplies. Sekino also taught in the US at universities in Oregon and Washington. He founded the Japanese Etcher’s Society in 1963. Sekino credited the great German printmaker Albrecht Dürer as an influence on his work.

Condition: Very good condition overall. There are fold marks on the margins that have been minimized and flattened.

Dimensions: 37.3 x 49.3  cm
Signed: Signed "Jun. Sekino" in  pencil 

SKU: SEC036S