White Character, from roof tile
- Date:
- 1940
- 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.
A white character from an ancient Japanese roof tile — a written symbol or ideographic element pressed into the tile's clay before firing — is here transcribed into woodblock. The character's calligraphic presence against the white ground inverts the usual relationship between text and surface, the mark itself becoming the architectural ornament. Hiratsuka's 1940 tile print treats this ambiguous inscription as a sufficient subject.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
White Character, from roof tile was created by Hiratsuka Un'ichi (平塚運一) in 1940.
White Character, from roof tile depicts architecture.
