Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori

Mezzotints are known for their dark and atmospheric appearance. This is because the starting point for any mezzotint is the creation of a roughened surface, which produces a solid black background when printed. To draw the image that emerges from this dark background, the artist uses a series of burnishers and scrapers; the deepest gouges print as white areas on the finished print.

This presentation includes earlier, smaller-format works done without color, as well as more recent larger work that boast many hues. Among the earlier monochromatic prints is Hamanishi’s 1997 Viva Chicago series, which focuses on the city’s beloved public monuments like the Picasso and Miró sculptures. As the artist recalled, “When I first came here, I was unprepared for the impact this city would leave on my mind, such a vivid impression etched deep in my memory… . This is my ode to Chicago.”

The exhibition also celebrates several important gifts to the museum. Hamanishi’s 2022 Four Seasons series—shown here for the first time—is a recent gift from the artist. Each work in the series is reminiscent of the panels of a folding screen and features seasonal floral imagery.

Many works in the show come from the 2013 gift to the museum from the Ninion and Sheldon Landy Collection, which gave the Art Institute the largest collection of Hamanishi’s prints in the world.

Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Arts of Asia.

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