Colors and Patterns from Heian Period

1969

American, born Japan 1906 - 1999

After the war and his return to Seattle, Horiuchi opened an automobile paint and body shop and practiced painting as a hobby. When a fall from a ladder left him unfit for manual labor, his hobby became a full-time vocation. He opened Tozai, an antiques gallery and gathering space for artists, which also included a studio for him. Influenced by Mark Tobey, he tapped into his early exposure to Japanese aesthetics to develop his signature style: collages of torn rice paper, dyed by hand in subtle hues and arranged in abstract configurations. This example is mounted on a Japanese screen—its balanced rhythm of rectangular forms mirrors the horizontal orientation of its support. One of a series of screens based on Tales of the Genji, it is a modernized shikishi, a form of collage practiced by poets and calligraphers during the Heian period of 12th-century Japan.

Casein and paint on paper mounted on board

54 x 105 x 5/8 in. (137.16 x 266.7 x 1.59 cm)

Overall h.: 54 in.

Overall w.: 105 in.

Gift in memory of Elisabeth A. Smithson by her son, Richard B. Smithson

71.52

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Office of Minority Affairs, University of Washington and the Ford Foundation, in cooperation with the Society of Ethnic and Special Studies, In Praise Of Man And Nature, Second Annual Conference on Special Emerging Programs in Higher Education, (Olympic Hotel, Seattle), Nov. 6 - 9, 1974.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Paul Horiuchi, Mar. 9 - June 11, 2000.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Modernism: Four Japanese Americans, Mar. 20, 2021 - June 5, 2022 [on view Mar. 20, 2021 - Mar. 13, 2022].

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