Mine and Yours 1

Masuo Ikeda

A rare, early drypoint by Chinese-born Japanese artist Masuo Ikeda, done in 1963. Starting as a painter, Ikeda began making prints in Japan using color woodcut and screenprinting. It wouldn't be until the 1950s that he would learn intaglio at Atelier 17.

"Mine and Yours 1" is done using drypoint and roulette with added collage and touches of color. The images are whimsical sketches that pay homage to Miro, who he likely met at Atelier 17. Ikeda, like many of his Japanese contemporaries, traveled to Europe in the 1950s and 60s to study at the experimental printmaking workshop in Paris with S.W. Hayter.

While there, he was introduced to the drypoint process and found himself drawn to Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. He then studied with Swedish printmaker Birgit Skiold in London, where he learned photo-etching. He worked primarily in drypoint between 1956 and 1966, moving to lithography and mezzotint with a series of erotic works between 1966 and 1976.

He was the consumate experimenter, known in Japan -rather disparagingly- as a 'maruchi taranto' ("multiple talent"), working as a printmaker, illustrator, ceramicist, sculptor, novelist and film director. There is a museum dedicated to his work in Nagano, Japan.