was a Japanese

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

and mountain climber. He was known for his prints of mountains and people who live in them.

Biography

Azechi was born on December 28, 1902, to a poor farming family in what is now Uwajima, Ehime. He enrolled in an art correspondence course where he would send his work to Tokyo for critique. In 1920 he had the opportunity to move there, but returned home to Shikoku after the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

. He moved back to Tokyo in 1925, where he worked for a printing company. Azechi's prints were noticed by Unichi Hiratsuka, who took him under his wing. He belonged to the Japan Print Association and the Kokugakai Arts Association. After his works were shown in some of their exhibitions, he quit his job and became a freelance artist. During this time, he was heavily influenced by and

Kōshirō Onchi , born in Tokyo, was a Japanese print-maker. He was the father of the '' sōsaku-hanga'' movement in twentieth century Japan, and a photographer. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Biogr ...

. During World War II, Azechi was sent to Manchuria. When he returned to Japan, he also immediately returned to making art. Azechi's work was shown at the

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

in 1953. It was also shown at the Lugano International Print Biennial in 1956. Azechi died on April 12, 1999. The Umetaro Azechi memorial museum opened in Uwajima in 2003.

Style

His early work was reflective of the monochrome sosaku hanga style. He began to develop his own style in the late 1930s. Azechi became known for his paintings of mountains and the people who live there. He became a regular mountain climber, and became well-known for his writing on the topic. His art style was primitive, but intentionally so in the same way as the naive artists. He used the same striped patterns on both people and animals, showing the similarities between the two. Because he did so many landscapes and art depicting the natural world, he used mostly cool colors like blues, greens, and purples. Museums that hold Azechi's works include the Museum of Modern Art, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the British Museum.

References

1902 births 1999 deaths Japanese printmakers {{DEFAULTSORT:Azechi, Umetaro People from Uwajima, Ehime Japanese mountain climbers