Exhibit of artist Matsumi Kanemitsu’s work at LACMA, curated by a Malibu resident, emphasizes the impact of Asian-American artists in the 20th century.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
In homage to the little understood art form of lithography, Malibu resident Aya Yoshida has directed the installation of a special exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Kanemitsu in California During the 1960s and 1970s.”
Despite his Japanese name and heritage, Matsumi Kanemitsu was “one hundred percent American,” having been born in Utah in 1922, Curator Yoshida said, and was one of the darlings of the New York art scene in the 50s through 70s, along with painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline.
“He used to go drinking with Jackson Pollack [the famous “drip” artist of post-World War II Abstract Expressionism],” Yoshida explained. “Pollack gave him the American name ‘Mike.’ It’s always amazed me that Kanemitsu is never hung in museums along with Rothko and Pollack, and the others, since he was such a part of that movement. But perhaps there is a hint of 20th century racism. Kanemitsu is seen as an exotic ‘Asian’ artist.”
Yoshida organized LACMA’s current exhibit of Kanemitsu’s work to highlight his important role in reviving lithography’s influence on the American art scene.
Ilene Fort, curator of the American Art gallery at LACMA, said Yoshida’s exhibit is part of an effort to emphasize the impact of Asian-American artists in the 20th century.
“In our collection, we have 103 Kanemitsu lithographs that he made here in L.A. at the Tamarind Institute [a center for fine art lithography],” Fort said. “They are all extraordinary.”
To introduce the exhibit, Yoshida organized a rare screening of “Four Stones for Kanemitsu,” a 1974 short documentary film nominated for an Academy Award. Tamarind founder and doyenne of lithographic art, June Wayne, who produced the short film, spoke of Kanemitsu and lithography at the screening.
“The art of lithography was in bad shape in the first half of the 20th century,” Wayne, who is 90, said. “If I wanted to make a good lithograph, I had to go to Paris.”
Wayne met Kanemitsu there in 1957 and their friendship lasted until his death in 1992.
“Mike traveled in an energy field that was quite pleasant,” she said. “After we got Tamarind up and running, we asked him to work with us several times and his work is in our archive.”
Wayne said one problem with American lithography early on was the lack of symbiosis between artist and printmaker.
“Back then, artists didn’t work in collaboration with printmakers,” she said. “We changed that. And because it’s impossible to describe in words how lithography is done, I made this film.”
As revealed in Wayne’s movie, the word “print” is a misnomer when applied to lithography-a craft that operates like a harmonious marriage between artist and printmaker in a balanced dance of color, tone and muscular effort.
Wayne’s film follows the creation of one of Kanemitsu’s images in her workshop, with the artist in collaboration with master printmaker Serge Lozingot.
The process is astonishingly complex and delicate, starting with a brawny cleansing preparation of the template-a large, heavy, flat slab of limestone-to the original painting created by the artist, to the mixing of the four colors applied to the four stone templates, to the precise measurements of acid preparation of the stones, to the actual “striking” process four times on the paper.
Kanemitsu and Lozingot kept a running commentary throughout the filmed process, with Lozingot noting that “the printmakers are as much an artist of the piece of art as the artist himself.”
At one point Kanemitsu was depressed because the color mix didn’t come out right the first time.
“But then I tried so many colors, I began to like them all, so I was depressed about which one to choose,” he said in the film.
Having settled upon the “Bon à Tirer” (or “good to pull,” the final image the artist chooses to reproduce), the team methodically sponges, inks and presses the paper to mathematical exactness before final approval and stamp of the artist.
“Tamarind only strikes 20 pieces of an image. This way, we control the number of prints available and the sales price that will sustain an art market,” Wayne said. “It also helps to keep the artists and printmakers from getting bored.”
Tamarind Institute is approaching its 50th anniversary and Wayne believes Los Angeles should celebrate this history.
“When I started Tamarind, I paid a heavy price,” she said. “In the 50s, women were supposed to know their place and, worse, I came from La La Land, so everyone’s attitude was that I earned the millions we were granted by the Ford Foundation on my back. I should have been a lot more tired!”
Yoshida wants to see as many people as possible visit the Kanemitsu exhibit.
“LACMA measures people’s interest in an artist or genre by the attendance to special exhibits like this. Kanemitsu has a special place in American art history.”
The “Four Stones for Kanemitsu” exhibit will show at LACMA through July.