Three Gourds (Kabocha)
- Date:
- 1963
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
$500–$8,000. Common later works: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: His enormous output (lived to 102) means most works are accessible. Early black-and-white prints are most valued.
Three gourds — kabocha, a Japanese term for winter squash — are rendered in Hiratsuka's 1963 woodblock with the direct naturalism of his still life subjects. The three gourds' rounded forms are treated as a compositional problem: how to arrange three similar volumes in a picture plane. His solution is characteristically direct, the gourds' surfaces conveyed through varied knife strokes that capture the vegetable's ribbed texture.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Three Gourds (Kabocha) was created by Hiratsuka Un'ichi (平塚運一) in 1963.
Three Gourds (Kabocha) depicts still life and food & drink.
