M Is for Marx

M Is for Marx situates Kristensen's print firmly in the contemporary, conceptually inflected end of his practice. The alphabet-primer title suggests a composition organized around a letter form paired with a portrait or symbol — Karl Marx, presumably, given the historical weight of the name — treated with the deadpan graphic clarity that mokuhanga handles well. Cherry-block carving cuts cleanly into both letterforms and silhouette portraits, and water-based pigments printed by [baren](/glossary/baren) onto [washi](/glossary/washi) produce the kind of flat, saturated areas that suit a poster-like image. The subject is unusually political for mokuhanga, a medium historically used for landscape, theatre, and [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), and the choice reflects Kristensen's willingness to push the tradition toward subjects it has not historically addressed. The print fits within his broader pattern of importing Western iconography — Marilyn Monroe, hearts, alphabet primers, Marx — into a medium developed for very different ends, treating the registered woodblock not as a relic of Edo visual culture but as a working contemporary printmaking tool.