Tomoo inagaki cat prints

Tomoo inagaki for sale
Tomoo Inagaki (1902-1980, Japanese) was an important Sosaku Hanga woodprint artist who specialized in landscapes and cats.
Tomoo Inagaki was Sosaku Hanga artist often known for his feline designs.

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Tomoo Inagaki - Sosaku Hanga - Modern Cat Prints

Tomoo Inagaki was a prominent Sosaku Hanga artist from Tokyo, Japan. After World War II, he found a unique niche in the art market, specializing in modern cat prints with a distinctive style.

Biography: Tomoo Inagaki

Tomoo Inagaki was born in 1902 in Tokyo, Japan. As a high school student and later while employed at a steel company, he began exploring oil painting and printmaking as a self-taught artist. Koshiro Onchi had published a magazine on poetry and prints called Poems and Hanga. Young Tomoo Inagaki was inspired by the modern prints featured in this publication, many by Onchi and Unichi Hiratsuka. This exposure played a pivotal role in his decision to pursue a career as an artist. Inagaki left his job at the steel company and enrolled in a commercial art class, where he studied for two years.

As a graduate of commercial high school, Inagaki had a strong sense of the financial aspects of life. Rather than pursuing a traditional fine arts career, he chose to focus on commercial art. He quickly established a succ

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Inagaki Tomoo (稲垣知雄) was born in Tokyo and graduated from the Okura Commercial High School. He was introduced to printmaking by Kôshirô Onchi and Un'ichi Hiratsuka in 1923, when the older artists were producing the magazine Shi to hanga ("Poetry and Prints": 詩と版画). He acknowledged a great debt to the two masters, attending Shi to hanga meetings regularly and thereby taking his only tutelage in printmaking. He said that "Poetry and Prints convinced me that I wanted to be a print artist." Inagaki also studied commercial art with Hamada Masuji (浜田増治, 1892-1938) and took some drawing lessons with Shizuo Fujimori (藤森静雄 1891-1943) in a Sunday class. In regard to Western art, which was so influential on many sôsaku hanga printmakers, Inagaki said, "I like some qualities and reject others in Matisse and Picasso" [Statler ref, p 164].

"Cat Making Up'
Signed: "T. Inagaki" in pencil; Titled: ""Cat Making Up' in pencil
Woodcut, 1955; Image: 590 x 437 mm; Paper: 631 x 467 mm

Beginning in 1924, Inagaki pub

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Tomoo Inagaki (1902-1980, Japanese)

Tomoo Inagaki (1902-1980, Japanese) was an important Sosaku Hanga woodprint artist who specialized in landscapes and cats. Originally a worker in a steel company, Inagaki was a self- taught artist. He held his first exhibition in 1924, and in 1932 he became a member of the Nihon Hanga Kōkai (Japan Print Association). To make ends meet, Inagaki worked as a teacher at the Commercial Artists Association School from 1930-1951 and then moved to the Japan Advertising Art School. Inagaki’s art was popular after WWII, and he was invited to exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo and Lugano.

Inagaki is best known for his modernistic and stylized prints of cats which he began producing in 1951. Inagaki’s cats are simple and semi-abstract and are almost always are done in grey, black or brown colors. His cat subjects are found displaying almost every cat pose and behavior. Obviously a cat lover himself, he was able to observe these feline behaviors in his own cats.

In discussing his work in 1956, the artist revealed, “I like some qualities and reject others i