Hasegawa Kiyoshi

Place: Yokohama

Born: 1891

Death: 1980

Biography:

Kiyoshi Hasegawa was a Japanese artist and engraver who spent most of his life in France. He was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1891 and moved to France in 1919 to learn copperplate printing. He never returned to Japan. Hasegawa's work is known for its influence from Chagall, Dufy, Laboureur, Pascin, Picasso, and Edouard Goerg. He revived the Mezzotint technique and found the power and the depth of black in wood engraving. Hasegawa's art is subtle and delicate, and it comes from the heart. His art is an ideal created in the silence of the workshop with memories of the recent past, transposed by the sharpness and delicacy of Oriental sensibilities. Hasegawa received several distinctions and awards during his career, including the Gold Medal at the International Exposition, Paris, 1937, Légion d’honneur, 1935, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Membre Correspondent of the French Academy of Fine Arts, 1964, and Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class, Japan, 1967. He passed away in 1980.