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Pisces, from the Zodiac Series by Akira Kurosaki — Japanese Woodblock print

Pisces, from the Zodiac Series

by Akira Kurosaki

Medium:
Woodblock print
Source:
Harvard Art Museums
Image courtesy of
Harvard Art Museums

Description

Pisces presents Kurosaki with the challenge of evoking duality—two fish swimming in opposite directions—through purely abstract means. Rather than depicting the fish literally, his geometric vocabulary likely introduces paired or mirrored forms whose diagonal orientation across the picture plane suggests fluid, reciprocal motion. The sign's water-element associations may be encoded in a palette leaning toward cooler tones or in the density of layered color fields. Kurosaki's hard-edged sosaku-hanga technique, built on carefully cut woodblocks printed in sequence, produces surfaces without modulation or brushstroke, yet the arrangement of forms can generate a sense of movement through directional tension alone. The Zodiac Series as a whole demonstrates his ability to find structural analogues for symbolic content: each sign becomes an occasion for a distinct compositional problem solved in the same formal language. Printed on Japanese washi, the flat planes of color achieve a material presence that separates the work from graphic design, grounding it firmly in the tactile tradition of woodblock printmaking.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Pisces, from the Zodiac Series was created by Akira Kurosaki (黒崎彰).

Pisces, from the Zodiac Series depicts abstract.