Takahashi Rikio (1917–1998) NIWA (Nunnery)

image size: 32 x 20 1/16 in. (81.3 x 51 cm)
sheet size: 35 7/8 x 23 5/8 in. (91.1 x 60 cm)

    
 
高橋力雄　庭 (尼寺)

Takahashi Rikio (1917–1998)

NIWA (Nunnery)

1985

Color woodblock print with embossing on paper 
Lent by Irwin Lavenberg, L2018.62.2

While Takahashi's images are abstract, his titles suggest a concrete subject. Here we see rock forms and an ice-covered pond in what might be the garden (niwa) of Jakkō-in, a nunnery in the hills northeast Kyoto that has been in operation since the twelfth century.

Are we looking at the gardens from above, or from an angle? With Takahashi, we can’t be sure.   


 
Three Masters of Abstraction Hagiwara Hideo, Ida Shōichi and Takahashi Rikio
 
Introduction