Charles Spitzack

Charles Spitzack is an American mokuhanga artist who has distinguished himself through both his creative work and his recognition within the international mokuhanga community. Based in the United States, he received the Kobaien Prize at the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference in Echizen, Japan, placing him among the artists whose work was singled out for recognition at the conference's international juried exhibition.

Spitzack's engagement with mokuhanga situates him within a growing American movement that has embraced Japanese water-based woodblock printing as a serious contemporary medium. Unlike many Western printmakers who encounter mokuhanga through brief workshops or academic introductions, Spitzack has developed a sustained practice that demonstrates deep familiarity with the technique's material demands. Water-based woodblock printing requires an understanding of wood grain behavior, moisture management, pigment preparation, and the nuanced hand pressure applied through the baren -- knowledge that accumulates through years of dedicated practice.

His award at the 2024 IMC in Echizen was particularly meaningful given the conference's location. Echizen, in Fukui Prefecture, is one of Japan's most historically important papermaking regions, where washi has been produced for over 1,500 years. The conference's setting in this landscape of living craft tradition provided a resonant context for the exhibition and award ceremony, connecting contemporary international practitioners with the deep material roots of the medium they have adopted.

The conference's juried exhibition, in which Spitzack's work appeared, showcased the breadth and depth of contemporary mokuhanga practice from around the world, including a substantial contingent of artists from across the Americas. That community has grown considerably since the first International Mokuhanga Conference in 2011, reflecting the establishment of mokuhanga workshops, study groups, and teaching programs across the United States.

Spitzack's work contributes to the ongoing dialogue between Eastern and Western approaches to printmaking that defines contemporary mokuhanga. His prints reflect both the technical precision of the traditional Japanese process and the visual sensibilities of an artist shaped by Western art education and cultural context, creating work that belongs fully to neither tradition alone but to the emerging international language of contemporary woodblock printing.

The recognition he received at the 2024 conference underscores the maturity of the American mokuhanga community, which has progressed from early tentative engagements with the technique to producing work that can stand alongside pieces from Japan and from other countries with longer histories of mokuhanga practice. Spitzack's award represents not only personal achievement but the broader coming of age of water-based woodblock printing in the United States.