TADASHI NAKAYAMA
(Japanese, 1927-2014)
YOUNG GIRL, BLACK CAT
Color Woodblock on Paper laid down on Card
31 x 21½ Inches
Paper dimensions: 32½ x 21½ Inches
Signed Lower Left, 'T. Nakayama' and Dated 1973
Inscribed, Lower Right, with Number and Limitation, '21/75'
A substantial, color woodblock of a young woman with psychedelic hair, wearing a 1970's style paisley dress. The subject is shown in profile, standing and gazing to the left, holding a black cat which directly engages the viewer. This ambitious graphic work involved the use of multiple roulade blocks, requiring unusually precise registration, and employed a complex, nuanced color palette that includes both gold and silver leaf. For his largest and most complex works, Nakashima carved as many as 23 individual wood blocks, using 48 colors applied in 57 stages of printing.
Born in Nigata prefecture, Tadashi Nakayama evolved a unique graphic style that combined traditional Japanese ukiyo-e print techniques with Western influences. These included Post Impressionism and Pop-Art and blended elements of early Byzantine and Persian art.
Nakayama first studied at Tokyo's Tama Art College. From 1962 to 1965, he lived in Milan, Italy and, subsequently, in England where he taught at the Bath Academy of Arts. Over the course of a long and distinguished career, he exhibited internationally with success and was the recipient of numerous prizes, medals and juried awards.
Tadashi Nakayama's work may be found in prominent private and public collections worldwide, including in the permanent collections of the Louvre in Paris, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the National Museum of Asian Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Harvard Art Museum and the Honolulu Museum of Art among others.
The present example must be considered among Nakayama's most ambitious and accomplished graphic works. It is in exceptional condition and has been laid down by our conservator on 8-ply, 100% cotton ragboard to ensure future stability. It is accompanied by a first-edition, hardback copy of 'Tadashi Nakayama; His Life and Work' by Kappy and Marshall Hendricks (Irongate Editions Limited, 1982) which also includes the artist's complete catalogue raisonné from 1956-1982.
Public Collections:
The Louvre, Paris
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia.
Cincinnati Museum of Art, Ohio, USA.
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, USA.
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii, USA.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA.
Western Australian Art Museum, Perth, Australia.
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, USA.
