Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
This second untitled woodblock print by Okamoto Yoshimi joins the first in existing outside the thematic series and titled compositions that structure the majority of the artist's catalog. The presence of multiple untitled works raises the question of whether Okamoto sometimes preferred to let prints speak without verbal framing, or whether practical circumstances simply separated these works from their names. The composition likely reflects the same visual intelligence that animates Okamoto's titled works, with the woodblock medium's organic textures and tonal range providing a physical foundation for whatever formal investigation the print undertakes. The "-2" suffix in the catalog distinguishes this from the first untitled work, acknowledging that untitled does not mean identical. Each print carries its own visual identity, title or no, and the viewer's task is to meet the image on the terms it sets through its own surfaces.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Untitled (okamoto-yoshimi) was created by Okamoto Yoshimi (岡本吉実).
Untitled (okamoto-yoshimi) depicts landscapes and abstract.
