"The Art of Color Intaglio Process and Aesthetics”
Thursday, April 7, 4:00 p.m.
Lectures will be in Lawrence Hall, Room 177, 1190 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97403 and will also live stream on the UO College of Design YouTube.
Yuji Hiratsuka mixes influences of east and west in his work. There is less of an emphasis on socio-cultural commentary and more of an emphasis about the placement and interplay of the visual effects. Hiratsuka plays with the metaphorical aspects of his subjects and their settings by portraying the irony, paradox, and satire in people’s daily lives. His images bear a slight resemblance to traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, which were frequently decorative, brightly colored and featured highly stylized exaggerated and distorted figures, while also expressing contemporary aspects of the western world. Hiratsuka will explain the unique technique of his multicolor intaglio (etching) printmaking process. The process begins with a deep etching printed on a sheet of Kozo (mulberry) paper in black, after which the plate is reclaimed and re-etched for subsequent printing in yellow, red, and blue. In addition, Hiratsuka often applies the fifth or six extra layers of color as desired to enhance the image.
Yuji Hiratsuka was born in Osaka, Japan, and received a bachelor’s degree in art education from Tokyo Teachers’ University in 1978. He taught art at several high schools and junior high schools in Osaka until he moved to the United States in 1985 to pursue graduate degrees in printmaking at New Mexico State University and Indiana University. He taught printmaking, book arts and drawing at Oregon State University for the past three decades. His intaglio prints are in public collections including the British Museum, London, UK; State Museum of Oriental Arts, Moscow, Russia; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Freer/Sackler, The Smithsonian’s Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C.; The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; University of Oregon, Eugene, OR; de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA.
This lecture is made possible by the Gilkey Foundation Fund.