Contemplating Cracking Hoping etc
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
$1,000–$5,000. Common subjects: $1,000–$2,000. Key value factors: Hiratsuka's intricate mixed-media prints appeal to collectors of both Japanese and contemporary Western art.
The title reads as a list of gerunds, mental states in continuous action: contemplating, cracking, hoping, and an open-ended "etc" that invites the viewer to extend the sequence. Hiratsuka's woodblock print translates these simultaneous inner activities into a visual field where multiple figures or forms occupy the same space without resolving into a coherent narrative. The composition has the quality of thought itself, with overlapping layers representing concurrent mental processes. The woodblock technique, which requires each color to be printed from a separate carved block in sequence, mirrors the title's suggestion of accumulated, layered experience. Each printed layer adds another verb to the image's internal monologue.
Contemplating Cracking Hoping etc was created by Yuji Hiratsuka (平塚雄二).
Contemplating Cracking Hoping etc depicts figures and abstract.
