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Naoko Matsubara
photography by Daniel Banko
Breath of Spring
1994,
image size 8 ½ x 9 inches, 22 x 23 cm
Woodblock Print - Edition of 50
Tibetan Mountain
1986,
image size 23 1/8 x 18 7/8 inches, 58 x 48 cm
Woodblock Print - Edition of 25
Matsubara: A Celebration in Pittsburgh March 7–June 7, 2009
Carnegie Museum of Art is pleased to present a retrospective of
leading contemporary woodcut artist Naoko Matsubara in the
exhibition Matsubara: A Celebration in Pittsburgh.
For almost 50 years, Matsubara has explored the medium of the
woodblock print, creating a body of works that are bold, often large
scale, and always captivating.
This exhibition of more than 60 works on paper will provide an
overview of Matsubara’s career, from her earliest prints, in which
she investigated representational imagery using innovative
black-and-white techniques, to her current experimentations with
abstraction and vivid color. She infuses her striking images, from
dancers caught in motion to swaying trees, with a sense of movement
and vitality.
“Matsubara is a vibrant artist whose work continues to evolve but
always engages the viewers with its vitality, grace, and
expressiveness,” said Amanda Zehnder, assistant curator of fine
arts.
One of the key experiences launching Matsubara’s distinguished
career was her time spent in Pittsburgh while on a Fulbright
fellowship at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon
University), where she received her MFA in 1962. Many of the earlier
prints in this exhibition were made while she resided in Pittsburgh
or involve subjects from Pittsburgh.
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Information |
The distinguished
woodcut print artist Naoko Matsubara was born on Shikoku Island into
an old Shinto family, and grew up in Kyoto, where her father was a
senior priest. She was educated at the Kyoto Academy of Fine Art (BFA,
1960); and was a Fulbright Scholar at what is now Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh (MFA, 1962). She was also a Special Invited
Student at the Royal College of Art in London (1962).
After travelling extensively in Europe and Asia, Naoko Matsubara
returned to Japan for two years, before being lured back to the
United States. There she worked as personal assistant to the late
Prof. Fritz Eichenberg, and also taught at the Pratt Institute of
Graphic Art in New York, as well as at the University of Rhode
Island. Subsequently she lived in Cambridge, Mass.
In 1972 Naoko Matsubara moved to Canada, and now lives in Oakville,
Ontario. She has continued to be extremely active as an artist:
locally, nationally and internationally. Since 1960 she has had some
75 solo exhibitions, in the USA, Canada, Japan, England, Ireland,
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Mexico. She has also
participated in numerous group exhibitions.
Public collections owning work by Naoko Matsubara include: Albertina,
Vienna; Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum; Carnegie
Institute; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Cincinnati Art Museum;
Detroit Institute of Art; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Haifa
Museum, Israel; Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art; Royal Ontario
Museum; The White House, Washington DC; Tokyo National Museum of
Modern Art; Yale University Art Gallery.
Naoko Matsubara has published some 20 books and portfolios of her
work, including most recently Tibetan Sky (Calgary: Bayeux Arts
Publishers, 1997; Preface by the Dalai Lama); Tokonoma (Bath,
England: Old School Press, 1999); and Konjaku monogatari (Tokyo:
ALIS, 2002). Her work also includes a large mural and donor pillar
for the new YMCA building in Oakville, Ontario (2003); mixed-media
screens; and paintings. In 2005, the Royal Ontario Museum
commissioned two large works from Naoko Matsubara for the Museum's
Bloor Street window case. The artist generously donated a third
work, Emerald Summer (2006). The three works (each 195 cm high by 95
cm wide) will be rotated at regular intervals into the outside
window. This is the first commissioned artwork to be displayed on
the Museum’s Bloor Street Plaza.
Recent major exhibitions have been in Tokyo, Kyoto, Indiana, and
Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum). Further exhibitions are currently
being planned in Seattle and Tokyo; new books in process include In
Praise of Hands. She also continues to travel widely; is frequently
invited to speak about her work; and also publishes essays, in both
English and Japanese.
Naoko Matsubara’s work has been the subject of countless articles
and reviews; documentary films (including two from the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation); and several book-length publications:
notably Mokuhan: The Woodcuts of Munakata and Matsubara (text by
Joan Stanley-Baker; Victoria, BC: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria,
1976); Naoko Matsubara: Development of Artistic Style and Technique
(text by Barbara Woodworth; MFA thesis, Harvard University,
1985);.and Tree Spirit. The Woodcuts of Naoko Matsubara (text by
Arlene Gehmacher, Klaas Ruitenbeek and John M. Rosenfield; Toronto:
Royal Ontario Museum, 2003).
In May 2009, Ms. Matsubara will receive
an honourary doctorate in Fine Arts from Chatham University in
Pittsburgh.
Works by Naoko
Matsubara
"Tales of
Days Gone By" Show
Tokonoma
Series Exhibition
Tropical Series
Biography |
