Woodpecker
- Date:
- 1930
- Medium:
- Woodcut 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 woodpecker — kera in Japanese — is rendered in Hiratsuka's 1930 woodcut with the alert, upright posture characteristic of birds clinging to vertical surfaces. The bird's chisel-like bill and the implied tree bark behind it connect the subject to Hiratsuka's own tool and material: the knife cutting into wood. The woodpecker and the woodblock artist are natural analogues, and his depiction suggests awareness of the parallel.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Woodpecker was created by Hiratsuka Un'ichi (平塚運一) in 1930.
Woodpecker depicts birds & flowers and animals.
