Munakata Shiko

Munakata Shiko

I went to visit the The Los Angles County Museum of Art to view the art exhibit of Munakata Shiko’s work on Saturday March 1 2003. He was one of the most significant modern Japanese artists of the twentieth century. He was born in Aomori City on September 5th 1903. In 1924, at the age of 21, Shiko made up his mind and went to Tokyo. His art work consists of paintings, prints, ceramics and calligraphy. Looking at his entire oeuvre and explorations in various mediums, one could be tempted to call him the Japanese Picasso of the twentieth century. The museum housed roughly three hundreds seventy eight of Munakata Shiko’s art works that cover the artist’s entire career aesthetics and demonstrated along side how he successfully united Japanese Western ancient and modern styles. The exhibition began with works from the artist’s early years, 1924–1944, considered his “black and white” period. During this time, Munakata created woodcut prints such as In Praise o...