Terrain

George Miyasaki

Art historian David Acton describes Miyasaki's technique for printing his color lithographs like "Terrain" on page 160 of 'The Stamp of Impulse - Abstract Expressionist Prints', ISBN: 90-5349-353-0. "Miyasaki made this print from a single counteretched stone. The artist approached lithography as an adjunct to painting and drew spontaneously on the horizontal stone...He drew with a brush and a solution of powdered asphaltum mixed with grease and cleaning solvents, according to his own recipes...

"After printing the initial compositions for the edition in a conventional manner in a single color he then "washed the printing surface with acetic acid, chemically defacing the stone...the image remained as a pale shadow to be used as a guide for the next layer...(he) printed light colors over darker ones. He used translucent tints to soften the image, blurring the edges of forms. By superimposing these translucent hues he created many other colors."

George Miyasaki was born in Kalopa, Hawaii on 24 March 1935. He moved to California in 1953 with the intention of pursuing a commercial art degree at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. After a short time, he was persuaded by Manuel Neri, Bruce McGaw, and other friends to switch his major to fine arts. Miyasaki studied painting with Richard Diebenkorn, and printmaking with Leon Goldin. Nathan Oliveira introduced him to color lithography in 1956.

Miyasaki quickly grasped the basic concepts and produced a body of highly experimental color lithographs. A few of which were exhibited at the Fourth International Biennial of Contemporary Color Lithography at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1956. Miyasaki received his BFA in 1957 and his MFA in 1958 from the California College of Arts and Crafts and the following year his work was included in the American Prints Today traveling exhibition sponsored by the Print Council of America. His first solo exhibition was held at the Gump’s Gallery in San Francisco in 1957, and in 1961, he had solo exhibitions at the Richmond Art Center in California and the Paul Kantor Gallery in Los Angeles. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for 1963 and traveled to Europe the following year with his family.

George Miyasaki didn't study at Atelier 17 until well after he'd switched his major from commerical to fine arts at the California College of Arts and Crafts. However, the prevailing interest in the United States in both Abstract art and printmaking had made its way from New York to the Pacific Coast, and Miyasaki's pursuit of the medium proved to be successful.

Between 1958 and1964, Miyasaki was an Assistant Professor at California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. During that period, he was a visiting lecturer at Stanford University for one year. In 1964, Miyasaki joined the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley, where he retired as Full Professor in 1994 after three decades of teaching. While at Berkeley, he designed and developed a world-class printmaking studio, still in use today.