Monkey

Monkey (サル) presents an animal study executed in etching with mixed media additions, drawing on the [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) tradition of small-creature studies while filtering it through contemporary intaglio sensibilities. The subject is likely treated as a focused portrait rather than a habitat scene, with line etching defining contour and form while aquatint or soft-ground passages establish fur texture and tonal volume. Mixed media interventions—possibly hand-applied watercolor, chine collé, or layered plate tone—introduce chromatic and material variation beyond what straight intaglio permits. Monkeys, particularly the Japanese macaque (nihonzaru), carry iconographic weight in Japanese visual culture, appearing throughout [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) in works by Mori Sosen and others. Sugimoto's treatment reflects the post-2020 Geidai cohort's tendency to approach traditional motifs without ironic distance but also without pictorial nostalgia, treating the animal as both observed subject and graphic problem. The print sits within his broader practice of moving fluidly between oil painting and printmaking, where the etched mark functions less as reproductive technique than as drawing equivalent.