And more by more they dream their sleep: Mezzotints by Yōzō Hamaguchi
November 27, 2024 - July 20, 2025
G226, 227
Free Exhibition
Yōzō Hamaguchi (1909–2000) was a master of color mezzotints, a technique that allowed printmakers to reproduce complex details of an artwork. Photography had rendered it obsolete by the 1900s, but Hamaguchi revived the technique after encountering it during a stay in Paris in the 1930s. There, he met American poet e.e. cummings, who gifted him a tool to achieve the signature tones in mezzotint. In the 1980s, Hamaguchi paid homage to the poet with the “e.e. cummings suite” of prints titled with lines from the poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town.”
This exhibition explores how Hamaguchi transformed the ordinary into the uncanny, featuring prints generously donated by Charles and Robyn Citrin and Bill and Roberta Stein.
Hamaguchi Yōzō (Japanese, 1909-2000), Twenty-Two Cherries (detail), color mezzotint, Gift of Bill and Roberta Stein 2023.100.44