TANAKA, Ryohei

Born 1933 in Takatsuki City, died in 2019
Medium: Copperplate Etching and Aquatint


      Tanaka had a special fondness for rural scenes and particularly the thatched roof farmhouses fast disappearing from the Japanese countryside.  His careful and meticulous copperplate etchings exhibit a unique talent for creating, usually only with black and white, the different textures of straw, wood, tile and stone.  In addition to exquisite detailing, the artist explored the various possibilities for subtlety afforded by the etching medium. 

      Often, Tanaka employed aquatint to achieve softly textured areas to accompany the fine lines of etching.   Occasionally there was the use of color, most often as a subtle highlight, such as for persimmons hanging on a tree or a kite flying above a farmhouse.  Other times the artist printed the image onto a softly colored paper which was then collaged onto the white backing paper, a process known as chine collè.

 
      Ryohei Tanaka richly deserves the international accolades received in an artistic career that began in 1963.  The artist and his family lived in the house where he was born and raised, near Kyoto.   The subject matter of his prints was most often drawn from villages in that same Kansai area.  In 1995, he began working on a series of prints showing different locations in Kyoto.   And for exhibits held with us he printed on thin paper which could then be scroll-mounted.  In 2006, he made another special scroll with the sepia colored print Mountain Hamlet No. 4.  We are pleased to have represented the fine work of this accomplished artist for over thirty years.  His last print was done in 2013.  

Exhibitions:                                                       Collections:                                                                                           
    Kyoto--numerous one-man shows                       Achenbach Foundation, San Francisco
    Melbourne, Australia                                          Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
    Ljubjana, Yugoslavia                                          Hirschorn Museum, Washington, DC
    Portland, Oregon                                               President Ronald Reagan
    Krakow, Poland                                                 Honolulu Academy of Art
    Hong Kong                                                        Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania                                  Morikami Museum, Florida    
    Boston, Massachusetts                                       Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
    Frechen, Germany                                             Springfield Museum
    Seattle, Washington                                           David Rockefeller
    New York City                                                    Singapore National Museum
    Honolulu, Hawaii                                                Portland Museum of Art
    Retretti, Finland                                                 Cincinnati Art Museum
    Shanghai, China                                                 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
    Brussells, Belgium               
    Tokyo--numerous one-man shows
    Cleveland, Ohio
    CWAJ Show in Tokyo, 1967 to present
    The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, CA--five one-person shows since 1992