
Unknown
by Reika Iwami
- Date:
- 1961
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database

by Reika Iwami
$1,000–$8,000. Common prints: $1,000–$2,500. Key value factors: Iwami Reika's luminous abstract prints are among the most sought-after by female Japanese printmakers. Her cosmic and water-inspired works command the highest prices.
This untitled 1961 woodblock print dates from Iwami's early career, a period when she was finding her way toward the abstract seascape imagery that would define her mature work. Created when the artist was thirty-four, the print may still show traces of the figurative training that preceded her commitment to abstraction, or it may represent an early step into the non-representational territory she would fully claim in the following decade. The absence of a title removes the interpretive anchor that works like "Sea in April" or "Ode to Water" provide, leaving the viewer to engage with the image purely on its formal terms. Iwami's 1961 output places her within the vibrant postwar [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) scene, when Japanese artists were asserting the print medium's relevance in an international art world dominated by painting.

1940
Woodblock print

1934
Color woodblock print; oban

Boshu Taikai
1925
Color woodblock print; oban

September 1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Unknown was created by Reika Iwami (岩見禮花) in 1961.
Unknown depicts seascapes and abstract.