Ken and Kiyo Hitch, preeminent collectors of modern and contemporary Japanese graphic art, have chosen the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery as the future home for their extensive collection of 20th– and 21st–century Japanese prints. Art of Darkness is the first in a series of exhibitions to celebrate this extraordinary gesture. With approximately 20 prints and related copperplates, this exhibition samples the visions of Hamaguchi Yozo (1909–2000) and Hamanishi Katsunori (born 1949). The works highlight the visceral production process and show remarkably innovative uses of the traditional European technique of mezzotint in the hands of Japanese artists.
Detail, Connection—Variation No. 4; Hamanishi Katsunori (b. 1949); Japan, 1980; Mezzotint; LTS2012.1.39