Biography
Kusaka Kenji is a Japanese woodblock printmaker born in Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, who trained under Nagare Koji and mastered traditional woodblock techniques. In the 1960s he gained international recognition through print biennials in Tokyo, Ljubljana, Sao Paulo, and Florence, winning several awards. His prints present abstract and semi-abstract forms with vivid colors, strong tonal contrasts, and recurring motifs of egg shapes and cloud-like forms, and are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the British Museum.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1936
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 50
Frequently Asked Questions
Kusaka Kenji is a Japanese woodblock printmaker born in Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, who trained under Nagare Koji and mastered traditional woodblock techniques. In the 1960s he gained international recognition through print biennials in Tokyo, Ljubljana, Sao Paulo, and Florence, winning several awards. His prints present abstract and semi-abstract forms with vivid colors, strong tonal contrasts, and recurring motifs of egg shapes and cloud-like forms, and are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the British Museum.
Kusaka Kenji was active born in 1936. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Kusaka Kenji's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Original prints by Kusaka Kenji can be found in collections including Japanese Art Open Database, wbp, British Museum, Watanabe Print.