Tetsuro Komai “Maze of Time B”

©Ari Komai 2025/JAA2500048

 

Author birth and death: 1920 Tokyo – 1978 Tokyo
Year of production: 1952
Technique Material: Etching with aquatint sandpaper
Dimensions: 23.2×21.2cm
Edition: 21/27
Signature: Edition number "21/27" in the lower left margin; signature "Tetsuro Komai" in the lower right margin.

Exhibition history: 29th "Shunyo-kai" exhibition April 1952, Salon de Mai, May 4, Paris; "Ibaraki Prefectural Museum of Modern Art Collection Exhibition + University of Tsukuba Collection Ishii Collection Exhibition" Ibaraki Prefectural Museum of Art, October 1952, 2007 Sun-October 10 cat. 5.

Literature: “Tetsuro Komai Print Works Collection” 1979 Bijutsu Shuppansha no. 54, pl. p. 57, fig. p. 197, ill. p. 133; Edited by Rintaro Terakado “Ishii Collection I. Paintings in the University of Tsukuba Collection” , University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Art, 2011, cat. 60.

Collection number: 2005-JP-IS008

Work description:
Corrosive copperplate printing is a technique that does not involve directly cutting the copper plate, but instead uses a corrosive solution to indirectly draw pictures on the copper plate.Among the corrosion copperplate printing techniques, etching is suitable for expressing lines, whereas aquatint is suitable for expressing surfaces. ``Time Maze B'' uses subtle color changes from white to black to create a fantastical world in which geometric shapes emerge in a dark space.The countless rectangles scattered across the screen that appear both flat and three-dimensional appear to be floating in an infinite universe.Aquatint is a technique that Komai, who used a variety of techniques, began working on after the war.The same technique is used in one of his masterpieces, Fleeting Apparition (1951 [2010-JP-IS012]), and there are similarities in composition and atmosphere.