Hideo Hagiwara collagraph
![Circus (?): "Circus" is a title I guessed at and is probably correct as it is from a series.
It was in 1967 when Hideo Hagiwara came to the University of Washington School of Art, and his method was something like that collagraph technique Glen Alps was touting as the end-all of all plate-making methods. I was enthralled by Hagiwara's art because it reminded me of my hero's art - Paul Klee, Joan Miro, and Marc Chagall. I saw in it something of the same spirit that ignited my work. I bought the print for some small sum - maybe $125 (which was not a small sum to us in those days). The silver-leaf frame cost even more! I learned later that a new guy who moved here the next year - Stephen Hazel - had learned his sosaku hanga printing from Hagiwara.
Online [https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/kindai_hanga/hagiwara_hideo.html] a monograph may be accessed from which the following was taken:
"We can also see the results of the scratched-line technique in some of Hagiwara's works from the late 1960s when he began exploring a kind of graffiti-like quasi-figuration in his designs. ... There are hints of human forms, but they are barely rendered in a naturalistic manner. The lines, which seem drawn rather than carved, were made with Hagiwara's woodblock intaglio method. Hagiwara was also making lithographic prints at this time, which might have influenced his choice to render lines ... . Given that Hagiwara was teaching at Oregon State University in early 1967, the influence of Western art seems incontrovertible here, given that he was likely aware of American artists working in similar modes. One thinks, perhaps, of ... "scribbled" paintings by the American artist Cy Twombly from the 1960s. Perhaps even more likely, certain works by Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró, would have come to Hagiwara's attention. Hagiwara's lines and forms have an anthropomorphic appearance, although it is difficult to decide exactly. Perhaps it is meant to suggest the blur of crowds at such festivals.
"Hagiwara's designs from his 1968-69 "Sâkasu (Circus)" series display a similar scratched-line figurative vocabulary, although the human forms are still only partly discernible. ... Here the influence of Joan Miró is more obvious.](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/6902/1f5f4170-539d-11ec-8f08-93be95aa56b8-vUVYHcR.lg@2x.jpg)
Circus (?)
"Circus" is a title I guessed at and is probably correct as it is from a series. It was in 1967 when Hideo Hagiwara came to the University of Washington School of Art, and his method was something like that collagraph technique Glen Alps was touting as the end-all of all plate-making methods. I was enthralled by Hagiwara's art because it reminded me of my hero's art - Paul Klee, Joan Miro, and Marc Chagall. I saw in it something of the same spirit that ignited my work. I bought the print for some small sum - maybe $125 (which was not a small sum to us in those days). The silver-leaf frame cost even more! I learned later that a new guy who moved here the next year - Stephen Hazel - had learned his sosaku hanga printing from Hagiwara. Online [https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/kindai_hanga/hagiwara_hideo.html] a monograph may be accessed from which the following was taken: "We can also see the results of the scratched-line technique in some of Hagiwara's works from the late 1960s when he began exploring a kind of graffiti-like quasi-figuration in his designs. ... There are hints of human forms, but they are barely rendered in a naturalistic manner. The lines, which seem drawn rather than carved, were made with Hagiwara's woodblock intaglio method. Hagiwara was also making lithographic prints at this time, which might have influenced his choice to render lines ... . Given that Hagiwara was teaching at Oregon State University in early 1967, the influence of Western art seems incontrovertible here, given that he was likely aware of American artists working in similar modes. One thinks, perhaps, of ... "scribbled" paintings by the American artist Cy Twombly from the 1960s. Perhaps even more likely, certain works by Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró, would have come to Hagiwara's attention. Hagiwara's lines and forms have an anthropomorphic appearance, although it is difficult to decide exactly. Perhaps it is meant to suggest the blur of crowds at such festivals. "Hagiwara's designs from his 1968-69 "Sâkasu (Circus)" series display a similar scratched-line figurative vocabulary, although the human forms are still only partly discernible. ... Here the influence of Joan Miró is more obvious.