THE TOLMAN COLLECTION OF NEW YORK

Since the Olympics are taking place in Tokyo this summer, and the global TV watching audience is learning about Japan, it seems fitting to reflect on one of the most Japanese of the Japanese artists whom I represent. Takahashi Hiromitsu (b.1959) has made it his life’s goal to perpetuate the traditional kappazuri printing technique. These days, when everything is homogenized, his work stands out. From the intensity of a battle scene to the bursts of color in the sky during a f

It is the year of the Ox in Asia and the lunar new year officially starts on February 12th. Casting about for a suitable image with which to open my February newsletter, my sister came across a wonderful 19th century woodblock print in the Harvard Art Museums’ Collection - a woman, seated on an ox, gazing at Mount Fuji. This in turn inspired me to think about Japan’s best- known mountain and the contemporary printmakers I know who have put their impressions of the mountain do

TAKAHASHI Hiromitsu is one of the artists with whom the Tolman Collection has an exclusivity contract, and for whom he has produced some 300 beautiful editions over the years. His representative prints are in the tradition of the legendary artist MORI Yoshitoshi and he is, as we often refer to him, the last of the Kappazuri stencil masters. His prints are vivid pieces depicting exciting moments in Kabuki plays, often actors wearing gorgeous costumes striking over the top pose