Katsunori Hamanishi - prints and biography
Japanese Master of the Mezzotint
Biography
Katsunori Hamanishi (b. 1949, Hokkaido, Japan) is internationally recognized as a master of mezzotint, the exacting intaglio process suited to the deep blacks and precise tonal gradations that define his work. He graduated from Tokai University in 1973 and studied at the University of Pennsylvania in 1987–88 as a research artist through the Japanese Government Overseas Program for Artists.
His early mezzotints isolate everyday materials — rope, fabric, steel rods, wood, folded and bound forms — against velvety black grounds, giving ordinary objects an unexpected monumentality through meticulous observation and dramatic light-and-dark contrast. Binding, wrapping, and separation recur as central themes.
Though mezzotint originated in Europe, Hamanishi brings to it a distinctly Japanese sensitivity to materials and space. Later works introduce color and metallic foils — gold, silver, copper — while retaining the precision of his monochromatic prints.
His work is held in major museum collections worldwide; the Art Institute of Chicago, following a 2013 gift from collectors Ninion and Sheldon Landy, holds what it describes as the largest collection of Hamanishi's prints in the world.
By: Katsunori Hamanishi
Medium: Mezzotint
Year: 1984
Edition Size: 100
Image size:
A meticulously executed mezzotint in which lengths of heavy rope bind pairs of polished metal rods against a deep, velvety black ground. The composition is spare and highly controlled, allowing the contrasting textures of coarse twisted fiber and smooth reflective metal to become the primary subject.