Ansei Uchima Signed 1958 “Youth” Abstract Woodblock Print

A 1958 signed abstract woodblock print titled Youth by Japanese-American artist Ansei Uchima (1921-2000). This print depicts sweeping organic lines and shapes in bright pastel colors with a light blue background. Signed and dated to the lower right, the print is titled to the lower left and is displayed in a blue and gold tone wooden frame and cream mat.

Born in Stockton, California, Uchima moved to Japan to study architecture at Waseda University in 1940. He eventually also began to study painting and printmaking. After WWII, Uchima worked as a translator for the American art collector, Oliver Statler. While working for Statler, he learned about the sosaku-hanga movement, a Japanese artistic movement infused with a Western modernist aesthetic, and began creating art in the same vein. He moved back to the United States in 1959 and went on to teach at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. A member of the Japan Print Society, Uchima has works in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., as well as others.