%C2%A9 Maki Haku
Ren - 4, 1960s
Maki Hakuexpand_more
Woodblock print; ink and color on embossed paperexpand_more
Gift of Sue Y.S. Kimm and Seymour Gruffermanexpand_more 2019.78.197
Not on Viewexpand_more
Here Maki created a mass of random, tangled strokes that cannot be decoded. Yet they evoke cursive writing in Japanese and Chinese, tempting viewers to try to read them. To those unfamiliar, Chinese characters are logograms—characters or “pictures” that represent a word. While these characters might seem to possess an infinite number of possible stroke combinations, in practice there are only eight types of basic strokes that are used. Maki’s invented cursive makes use of these strokes, which makes the whole appear writing-like, but each character has too few or too many strokes, which renders it illegible.
Details
- Title
- Ren - 4
- Artist Life
- 1924 - 2000
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 2019.78.197
- Catalogue Raisonne
- Haku Maki Catalogue Raisonné (unlisted)
- Curator Approved
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© Maki Haku