(Bird and Fish)

Keiko Minami

Japanese-born printmaker Keiko Minami and her husband, mezzotint artist Yozo Hamaguchi, moved to Paris in 1953, where she began studying at the atelier of Johnny Friedlaender, a pioneer in aquatint etching. Two of Minami's influences were the Japanese Mingei folk art movement and the works of Paul Klee.

Keiko Minami is known for her fairytale-like motifs revolved mainly around the themes of young girls, nature, and castles. Employing her signature use of complex, delicate linework against a plain blackground, her flat-plane composition highlights a fantastical scene in which a bird uses the leaf of an aquatic plant to peer at tiny blue fish as they swim by. Minami's etching technique gives the sense of magnetized ions gathered at the center of space, forming shapes that appear at once stable and ready to burst apart. Though her subjects are often sweet or decorative, her execution is one of controlled tension, making each composition deceptively intriguing.

In 1959, Keiko Minami was named the official artist of the United Nations for her etching Tree of Peace. The Museum of Modern Art and UNICEF reproduced many of her works as greeting cards beginning in the late 1950s. In 1961, Minami entered into a contract with the German dealer Heinz Berggruen and three of her prints were published by Associated American Artists, New York City, in the 1960s. Her prints appeared regularly at international print exhibitions.

In 1996, after a forty year absence Minami returned to Japan, where she died on December 1, 2004, at age 93.