HARA Takeshi
(Japan 1942– )
- Title
- Strokes 90-13
- Place of origin
-
Japan
- Period
- Heisei period 1989 - → Japan
- Year
- 1990
- Media category
- Materials used
- lithograph
- Edition
- 10/20
- Dimensions
-
95.0 x 63.0cm image; 100.0 x 120.0cm sheet
- Signature & date
- Signed l.r., pencil "Takeshi Hara". Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of the artist 1993
- Accession number
- 416.1993
- Copyright
- © HARA Takeshi
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Born in Nagoya, Hara graduated from the oil-painting department of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in 1967, and now lives in Tokyo.
As with several other printmakers who emerged to prominence in the I970s, much of his work has been pristine, dispassionate and self-contained: pure, original design with no personal involvement. Hara sees only a marginal distinction between graphic design and prints; for him the goal was the final dispassionate design that existed as an original image.
Hara has been working with the theme of strokes since the I970s. The strokes are paths of light, each one a range of intensities captured by Hara's magnificent technique of colour gradation. Hara prefers the screenprint and lithograph techniques for his prints because they allow him the flat coolness and perfect evenness he considers desirable. While throughout the 1970s and I980s his strokes were suspended on a blank ground, moving bands of pure light and colour, now in his recent work the strokes are fewer and contrasted against a soft, subtly expressive grey background. In such works he seems to introduce a more personal element, admitting that he wants to express the rhythm and timbre of his spirit through the strokes of his moving arm.
Jackie Menzies, Contemporary Japanese Prints: The Urban Bonsai, 1992, p. 29.
- Bibliography (1)
-
Jackie Menzies (Australia) (Author), Contemporary Japanese Prints : The Urban Bonsai, Sydney, 1992, 29, 35 (colour illus.). cat.no. 12
- Exhibition history (11)
-
The Urban Bonsai, Queensland Art Gallery, 04 Mar 1992–04 May 1992.
The Urban Bonsai, National Art Gallery, Wellington, 20 Jun 1992–09 Aug 1992.
The Urban Bonsai, Christchurch Art Gallery, 12 Sep 1992–29 Oct 1992.
The Urban Bonsai, Manawatu Art Gallery, 13 Nov 1992–10 Jan 1993.
The Urban Bonsai, The George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, 18 Mar 1993–25 Apr 1993.
The Urban Bonsai, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 08 May 1993–01 Aug 1993.
The Urban Bonsai, Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, 11 Mar 1994–24 Apr 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, 19 May 1994–19 Jun 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, Campbelltown Arts Centre, 15 Jul 1994–21 Aug 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, Moree Plains Gallery, 11 Nov 1994–24 Dec 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, 01 Feb 1995–05 Mar 1995.
