Kokusai Zuan 国際図案

1928. Maki Hisao 牧寿雄, artist and editor, et al. Kokusai Zuan 国際図案, The Textile and Dyeing Design, Vol 1, Issue 1. Uchida Bijutsu Shoshi 内田美術書肆, publisher. Kyoto. Shōwa 3, 1928. 27.3 x 18.9cm volume of avant-garde design with 14 original plates tipped in, varying in size from 13.2 x 9cm to 8.5 x 8cm. Bound with staples and opens Japanese style. 22 pages including Japanese text, followed by colophon. Color designs are identified by artist in Japanese at the bottom of the page. Front wrapper features a photo reproduction of an artist at work. Artists include Maki Hisao 牧寿雄, Chagall (シャガール), Tanaka Kichinosuke 田中吉之介 (1897 - ?), Herr Bolz ?, 山田江秀 Yamada (Hozue?), (truncated) 高橋白扇 Takahashi Hakusen, 細木華涯 [Hosoki Kagai?], and 狩野秀峰 [Kanō Shūhō].

There is also design criticism in Japanese text, as well as the images, as indicated on the bottom of the cover (Zuan to Hyōron 図案と評論). A page posts the opening of a design exhibition to be held later that year. The notice encourages young artists and designers of imagination, out of the mainstream, to apply to show at the exhibition.

Printed by the famous printer/publisher Uchida Bijutsu Shoshi (内田美術書肆 Uchida Art and Book Shop), who were responsible for a number of amazing design portfolios during the 1920s and 30s. Uchida's involvement means woodblock printing was involved, and there appear to be hybrid printing effects, as well. In combination with Uchida the previous year (1927), Maki Hisao produced a very scarce but well-known design book, published in color woodblock, entitled Shin Girisha Moyō 新希臘派模様.

Maki Hisao was a Mavo artist from the Kansai area and a founding member of the Mavo art movement. Originally an architect, he was interested in an avant-garde approach to design in all its forms, but primarily design for design's sake. "Murayama and his Mavo-Sanka colleagues Maki Hisao and Yoshida Kenkichi established the Union of Woven and Dyed Art (Shokusen Geijutsu Renmei 織染芸術連盟) in Kyoto to study artistic textile production in conjunction with young textile designers in the Kansai area." See Gennifer Weisenfeld, MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931.

Mavo was an early independent Japanese "avant-garde" movement heavily influenced by German Expressionism and Russian Avant-Garde Art that involved print projects, constructivist sculpture, and some of the earliest "performance art" exhibitions to be held anywhere.

Chip in top left corner of front wrapper and dirt staining to wrappers. Minor chipping to edge of pages at middle. We have searched high and low for a reference to this work, with no result. (Inventory #: 90887)