HASEGAWA Kiyoshi was a “poet of silence” who moved to France in the first half of the 20th century and revived the long-neglected copperplate technique known as manière noire (mezzotint) for the modern era. Belonging to an earlier generation than HAMAGUCHI Yozo, he forged a singular, mystical worldview in France by fusing Eastern spirituality with Western printmaking techniques.
At the heart of Hasegawa’s art lies light emerging from deep blackness. His chosen motifs— a single wildflower, a transparent glass bottle, or a small bird—are fleeting presences drawn from everyday life. Yet in Hasegawa’s hands, they are transformed into sacred icons in which time seems eternally suspended. His depictions of plants, in particular, feel less like studies from nature than manifestations of the soul of the plant itself, imbued with a taut stillness and profound serenity.
Although Hasegawa spent his later years in Paris and passed away without ever returning to Japan, his works are now carefully preserved in museums around the world as rare achievements in which “Eastern silence” and “Western logic” exist in perfect harmony. Through the inherently indirect medium of printmaking, HASEGAWA Kiyoshi remained a solitary seeker, tirelessly engraving the truths of an invisible world.
At the heart of Hasegawa’s art lies light emerging from deep blackness. His chosen motifs— a single wildflower, a transparent glass bottle, or a small bird—are fleeting presences drawn from everyday life. Yet in Hasegawa’s hands, they are transformed into sacred icons in which time seems eternally suspended. His depictions of plants, in particular, feel less like studies from nature than manifestations of the soul of the plant itself, imbued with a taut stillness and profound serenity.
Although Hasegawa spent his later years in Paris and passed away without ever returning to Japan, his works are now carefully preserved in museums around the world as rare achievements in which “Eastern silence” and “Western logic” exist in perfect harmony. Through the inherently indirect medium of printmaking, HASEGAWA Kiyoshi remained a solitary seeker, tirelessly engraving the truths of an invisible world.
