A Letter, Shigeko Kumabe
About the Work
From the Artist
New York for me is a place of confusion [and that is reflected in A Letter]. In Japan, my prints were all handmade. My subject matter then was the passage from dark to light that was expressed in horizontal movement of animals and humans. Arriving in New York my sense of that world disintegrated. I could no longer continue making work in that vein… Aside from technical issues only of interest to fellow printmakers, the look of the work has undergone radical change. On close perusal of the work, I don't think the content has really changed. In the earlier work, there were animals and humans in movement across the page. In the new work there are juxtapositions of children, parts of bodies, and faces and plant forms on textured background. They give an impression of the multiplicity of human experience.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records
The subject of my new work is my sense of disintegration and my resolution of that [human] experience. I am making prints from my disparate feelings and observations of being in New York.
—Excerpted from https://twitter.com/asuartmuseum/status/1336732350286241792, accessed 6-28-2021
About the Artist
Shigeko Kumabe is a Japanese printmaker. She earned an MA from Tama Art University, Tokyo, and attended Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia.
Kumabe's work has been exhibited internationally at exhibitions including Falu Biennia...
