Analysis of His Work
Instead of having a straight line development, his work moved forward in a series of abrupt stages. For example, his 1955 encounter in Mexico with primitive Pre-Columbian artifacts and architecture radically reoriented his art. A survey of the total range of his work - about 600 prints over 45 years - reveals distinct periods, each having major changes in subject matter, vocabulary, style, and color pallet. His styles, while always his own, drew from Expressionism, Pop, Photorealism, and Color Field abstraction. (Allen, et al., 114-119) Broadly speaking most of his prints would be categorized as sōsaku-hanga.
Main periods:
1950-53 Early Prints - simple modern observations of nature and human nature
1953-54 Buddhist Prints - modern reformulations of traditional Japanese material culture
1955-63 Primitive Prints - abstractions of the primitive in Pre-Columbian forms
1963-66 Folk Prints (Transition A) - witty perspectives on indigenous South American culture
1966-74 Mythology and Landscape Prints - Pop art exposé of modern culture in decline
1974-79 House and Nude Prints (Transition B) - the tension aroused by premodern/modern
1979-84 FMC House Prints - the basic human element in houses from various cultures
1984-91 Recollection Prints (Transition C) - noting old and distressed objects
1991-95 Wall Prints - the human story on the surfaces of old walls
The print technology Hodaka used was not limited to woodblock, but included monoprinting, wood engraving, copper etching, silkscreen, lithograph, and often employed photo-transfer techniques. In this regard he was a pioneer in Japan in the 1960s and 70's. (Allen, et al., 114-117) His subject matter was drawn from objects in cultures all around the world. In spite of these various dynamics, each of Hodaka's periods is an exploration in the same basic direction, into what might be called modernist expressions of primitive human vitality. (Robertson, 114; Skibbe, 47-49) Individual prints show great artistry in composition and color.
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