21396 (日本近代藝術家森義利作版畫兩張) Two woodblock prints by Yoshitoshi Mori

Yoshitoshi Mori (Japan, 1898-1992)

Master fabric dyer and print maker, Yoshitoshi Mori's work has been collected by museums in Japan and in the west. In these two prints shown here, one can see both the boldness and the abstract quality expressed in a distinct modern sense. The works, though with a complex look on the surface, hold a naïve feeling that are almost cartoon like perhaps can date back to his involvement with the Mingei movement and his early working with stencil dying.
His colors are charming. They remind me of old and solemn Japanese towns and people from the past era. The colors in these two prints are warm and somewhat quiet in its richness. They hold many tiny images: pagoda, lantern like stone column, stone walls, Japanese gates, bundled-yarn like trees, people, houses, shops and shop decorations, stalls, more people, flying white doves, ...

Though these two works are landscape and festival print, people are the central theme in both of the works that contrasted to each other. One is filled with endless houses and trees with just a few, scarce dream-like figures in the middle that pulls the whole painting inward for the viewers. Perhaps the artist was speaking inside him something quiet and important? It reminds me of pebbles being thrown on a pond of water, and we see more and more the reflections and the circles growing outward from inside...

The other work is just the opposite with people working like music flowing through the image with bright and cheerful colors. This print, abstract in nature, is composed of many lantern-like circles against the rectangular, triangular, and other geometric shapes such as diamond shape, with figures spotting here and there all over the place, creating a rhythmic river flow under thickly roofed sky with only a few white doves flying above, chasing the freedom...

The following link is provided for more reference.
https://www.asianartscollection.com/a/Yoshitoshi-Mori/53

Approximate Dimensions (Unframed) for each print : 17 1/2" x 13 1/2". Dimensions with Frame: 25 1/4" x 19 1/4".

Sold as a pair. Price upon request.

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