Paul Binnie
About the Artist
Paul Binnie (b. 1967)
Paul Binnie was born in Alloa, Scotland in 1967 and studied fine art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with an M.A. (Hons) in 1990.
He lived in Paris from 1990 to early 1993, working both as a professional artist and as a teacher of art at the Ecole du Louvre and the Atelier Hourde.
His growing interest in Japanese woodblock prints led him to travel to Tokyo in 1993, where he lived until the end of 1998 in the pursuit of the skills and techniques of Japanese woodblock print making. Binnie had discovered Japanese prints of the Ukiyo-e school in his teens while a student at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, and had begun to collect prints at that time, an enthusiasm which continues until now. Unable to enter the Yoshida studio, his first choice for training, due to the illness of Yoshida Toshi, he was advised to contact Seki Kenji. Kenji had been the head printer at Doi-Hangaten and Binnie worked with him for several years developing his own block printing style. He also made friends with woodblock artist Ralph Kiggell, who was studying at the Yoshida Studio at the time. There Paul Binnie met Toshi Yoshida, and made numerous visits to the Yoshida Studio to study the carving and printing procedures there.
In Tokyo. Paul Binnie lived in Sendagaya, a few streets away from the National Noh Theatre. He became absolutely fascinated by both Noh and Kabuki, and like 18th and 19th century Japanese woodblock artists he started making sketches of Kabuki and Noh actors behind the scenes. These sketches were used both for his subsequent print designs and for a vast array of oil paintings.
Binnie is currently working on a large series of prints, Nihon Meisho Zu-e (Famous Views of Japan) and these are released every few months when they are completed, adding to the earlier landscapes, such as the series Shitamachi Settsugekka (Snow, Moon and Flowers of Downtown Tokyo), which he produced in Japan. He was also interested in tattoos, and has designed numerous prints of this subject, in both woodblock and Kappaban stencil, which have proved very popular with a western audience. He is one of the few contemporary artists to successfully use this technique. His ongoing series Edo Sumi Hayaku Shoku (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo) has many enthusiastic collectors. A recent focus for him is bijin-ga, or prints of beautiful women, which have become a new theme in his work, with one series, Shiki (Four Seasons) completed in Spring 2005, a second, Azuma Nishiki Bijin Awase (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties) is added to periodically and a third, Hyakunen no Hana (Flowers of a Hundred Years) just beginning.
Binnie is one of the few foreign artists to combine the skills of designer, block-cutter and printer, all of which in the past were specialist jobs performed by individuals. He has two distinct styles; the “Shin hanga” finesse style which is influenced by Ukiyo-e, Natori Shunsen, Ota Gako and artists of the Taishõ period and the “Sõsaku hanga”, or creative print style, where the design is worked out directly on the block. Binnie uses kappaban, or stencil printing, when he wishes to exploit effects of shading and opaque tones of color, often on a black Japanese paper, with small editions and painterly applications of ink. The technique was originally developed in Kyoto, the kimono making centre of Japan, as a method for dying silk but has been used by numerous Japanese print artists of the twentieth century as a low-tech fore-runner of silk screen printing.
Binnie has exhibited widely in such places as Tokyo, Paris, New York, London, Hong Kong, Sweden, Scotland and the Netherlands.
The catalogue raisonné of his woodblock prints was published in 2007; i.e. Paul Binnie, A Dialogue with the Past , with essays by Dr. Kendall H. Brown, Paul Griffith and Akama Ryo, Professor at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, where a selection of his work was exhibited in November 2007.
Paul Binnie moved to London, England in 1998 where he currently resides.
Bijin-ga (Beauties) & A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo
Paul Binnie
"A Mobile/Cell Phone of 1980" 1980 Nen no Keitai Denwa
Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Year: 2018
Print size: day oban tate-e - 47 x 33 cm / 18.5 x 13 inches.
Image size: 17.5 x 11.5 in.
Description: Blind printing, silver and bronze metallic pigment and 23c gold leaf on the cuff buttons in the form of the letter B twice. Series title and print title in karazuri (’blind-printing’) on the upper left margin; signed in kan-ji, Bin-ni upper left followed by red artist’s seal Binnie, and numbered and signed in pencil on the bottom margin.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,095
“The 9th in the series Hyakunen no Hana, Flowers of a Hundred Years, the print reminds us that the tiny super-computers we all carry in our pockets used to be simple phones the size of a brick! More importantly, the model shows a female executive, in pastel blazer with shoulder pads and contrasting scarf, symbolic of women achieving better jobs and the ability to rise to important positions within their professions. In the 80s, mobile/cell phones were very expensive and could only be within reach of those on high salaries.“ Paul Binnie, May 2018
Paul Binnie
"1970 Nen no Kontakuto Renzu" Contact Lens, 1970
Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2017
Print size: day oban tate-e - 47 x 33 cm / 18.5 x 13 inches.
Image size: 17.5 x 11.5 in.
Details, highlighted in bronze, 23 carat gold leaf, and silver and white mica metallic pigments. Series title and print title in karazuri (’blind-printing’) on the upper left margin; signed in kan-ji, Bin-ni lower left followed by red artist’s seal Binnie, and numbered and signed in pencil on the bottom margin. There were 53 printings, including a new technique in the shaded background; i.e. a special block was cut for the upper area and splattered with oil varnish, which when dry, resisted the water-based ink in an irregular way. Each impression is therefore different in this regard, some showing the resist strongly, others showing the shading more.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
“May 1st brings the annual release of the new design in the series ‘Hyakunen no Hana’ (Flowers of a Hundred Years), and for 2017 the design is called Contact Lens of 1970.
A young woman prepares to put on a contact lens, carefully placing it on her right forefinger, and holding a small mirror in her left hand. Her hair is stylishly mid-length and curled under, and instead of a kimono, she is wearing an extremely fashionable kaftan decorated with psychedelic flowers. This vibrant robe is set against a more subtle background of Martin Teal, a particular green-blue which here shades irregularly from dark above to light below and which was also used in my March 2017 release Hagoromo (The Feathered Robe).
Contact Lenses were first suggested theoretically by Leonardo da Vinci, but were actually invented in the later 19th century, though of glass. Plastics were introduced in the 1930s, which allowed hard contact lenses to be lighter and less intrusive than glass, although it wasn’t until 1959 that soft contact lenses were developed, which revolutionised their comfort and wearability and lead to widespread use by around 1970. As a contact lens wearer myself, the subject is close to my heart.” Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
"The Feathered Robe" Hagoromo
Honga Dori (Pictorial Allusions, Reused Blocks) Series.
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2017
Size: Dai-ōban, 47 x 33cm, 18.5 x 13 inches.
Edition: 100
The title is printed in silver metallic ink in the left margin. Signed and numbered in pencil.
Condition: Mint.
Price: $1,050
Paul Binnie
"The Feathered Robe" Hagoromo
Detail
“Hagoromo, the Feathered Robe, a new woodblock print for March 2017
I'm pleased to announce the release of a new woodblock print design, Hagoromo, or The Feathered Robe, a title taken from a famous Noh play of the late 15th or early 16th century. This is the second design in the occasional series Honga Dori (Pictorial Allusions, Reused Blocks), the first of which was Kasa (Umbrellas) of September 2014. As with many of my recent prints, the format is Dai-ōban, 47 x 33cm, 18.5 x 13 inches, printed in an edition of 100. As I often do, I have utilised many luxury printing techniques, such as gold mica here imitating gold leaf, bronze and silver metallic pigments and extensive deep embossing in the outer robe.
In a the Noh play Hagoromo, a fisherman is walking with his companions at night when he finds the Hagoromo, the magical feather-mantle of a tennin (an aerial spirit or celestial dancer) hanging on a bough. The tennin sees him taking it and demands its return, as she cannot return to Heaven without it. The fisherman finally promises to return it if she will agree to show him her dance. She accepts his offer, then after her dance, the tennin disappears like a mountain slowly hidden in mist.
In the Hagoromo print, a beautiful young woman is pulling on a hanten (outer robe) of pale teal with deeply embossed feathers, and her green kimono itself is decorated with silver peacock feathers. The allusion here is that the bijin (beautiful woman) is a heavenly creature, perhaps retrieving her feathered robe, and destined to vanish from view as she exits the image.
There is a direct reference to the play of the title in the antique gold-leaf screen in the background, where a red robe decorated with feathers hangs over the branch of a tree. This screen design is based on landscape from an eighteenth century keyblock by Torii Kiyomitsu showing an abalone diver, which was re-used in this new way to add depth to the image and a further layer of meaning to the beautiful woman.”
Paul Binnie, March, 2017
Paul Binnie
"Ushiwakamaru and Benkei" Ushiwakamaru to Benkei
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2015
Size: oban tate-e; 16 1/8 x 11 3/8 in., 40.9 x 29 cm.
Signed in silver kanji, Bin-ni, with karazuri (embossed) artist's seal Binnie, the title on the left margin, Ushiwakamaru to Benkei, and sealed again on the bottom margin, Binnie, signed in pencil Paul Binnie, 2016. Numbered in pencil along bottom margin.
Edition: 50
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Description: Ushiwakamaru to Benkei' (Ushiwakamaru and Benkei) is a tattoo design made to fit with an Utagawa school print of male legs, separated from its upper half. My replacement upper half fits with my continuing interest in tattoo motifs and works rather well as a stand-alone design, plus the image of the two heros of medieval Japan is loosely based on a painting by Torii Kotondo. As ever, I like the model and his tattoos to interact in some way, so he is holding a short sword in a similar pose to Ushiwakamaru in the tattoo. Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
"Protest March of 1960" 1960 no Kógi no Kóshin
Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock print
Date: 2016
Print size: 47.5 x 33.5 cm / 18.5 x 13 in.
Image size: 17.5 x 11.5 in.
This design has 23 carat gold leaf, silver and bronze metallic pigments (surrounding the peace symbol). Series title and print title in blindprinting in the top left margin; signed in blindprinting and pencil in the bottom margin. Numbered in pencil.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
Description: This is the seventh of a series of bijin prints illustrating women throughout the decades of the 20th century. This print shows a beautiful young woman turning away from the melée of a protest march against the government's decision to continue to allow US military bases on Japanese soil to hold nuclear weapons. Images of the crowd and the placards were taken from actual film footage of a 1960 protest, and I decided to keep the sepia tonality of the original black and white film, which forms a complex, intricate monochrome backdrop to the simpler, full-colour form of the young woman. Her t-shirt carries the anti-nuclear peace symbol, here surrounded with bronze and silver metallic pigments and 23c gold leaf, as I have used throughout the series.
There may be another state of this print in the future without the background protest march, as I think the keyblock is interesting enough to use in a new way. I have tried to replicate the rough crayon line of drawings of that period, which in fact is harder to carve than the smooth key-block lines in other prints in this series. I am constantly trying to tie this series to the decades I represent, and I hope collectors will enjoy the variety of approaches I have taken.
Paul Binnie, London April 29th, 2016
Paul Binnie
"A Comparison of Contemporary World Fashion" Konze Fuzoku Kurabe
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2015
Size: oban tate-e; 16 1/8 x 11 1/8 in., 40.9 x 28.4 cm.
Signed in kanji at lower left, Bin-ni, with artist's red seal Binnie, numbered and signed in pencil along the bottom margin, Paul Binnie, 2016. Numbered in pencil on the bottom margin.
Edition: 50
Condition: Mint
Price: $795
Description: Konze Fuzoku Kurabe (A Contest of Contemporary World Fashion) shows a sort of 'alternate history' - let us imagine that instead of being closed to all outside influence until the 1850s, Japan had been able to access information about the West in the 1780s. Women might well have rushed to dress in the height of Western fashion of the time as they did a century later, and this print shows what might have been the outcome. A young woman proudly wears her French court dress, including high powdered wig surmounted by a galleon in full sail, and drinks her tea from a handled cup, to the surprise and bemusement of the other women around her. This print was made to display with a Shuncho print of beauties in a garden of the 1780s, and that is the date of the style of French costume too. Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
"Hiroshige's Edo" Hiroshige no Edo
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Medium: Japanese woodblock print
Date: 2015
Paper size: 16.5 x 12 in.
Image size: 15 x 11 in.
Edition: 100
Signed and numbered in pencil with the series title cartouche in the upper right margin, the print title to the left, signature in gold, seal in red.
Condition: Mint
Price: $695
Paul Binnie
"Alluring Figure" Adesugata
Azuma Nishiki Bijin Awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Medium: Japanese woodblock print
Date: 2015
Print size: 18 x 12 in.
Image size: 15 x 11 in.
Edition: 100
The signature is in bronze metallic pigment, and there is blind embossing in the signature in the lower margin, numbered and signed in pencil. Her sheer cloth is the green of Japanese tea, embellished with flower buds in sliver metallic pigment and 23c gold leaf. In addition, there is an extra black lacquer-printed block in the hair.
Condition: Mint
Price: $950
Paul Binnie
"Votes for Women" Fujin no Ippyó
Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2015
Print size: 47.5 x 33 cm / 18.5 x 13 in.
Image size: 17.5 x 11.5 in.
This design has 23 carat gold leaf, silver and bronze metallic pigments (on the obi), embossing in the left and lower margins and black 'lacquer' printing in the hair details.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
Desc: This print represents the year 1950 and is the 6th in the series and the halfway point. 'Fujin no Ippyó' means Votes for Women, and like some earlier prints marks advances for women in Japan in the last century, such as universal literacy (1900) and women's higher education (1910). Universal suffrage was introduced after the Second World War, and indeed the immediate post-war years saw an influx of women into politics in larger numbers even than today. The young woman in the current print is wearing a yellow kimono with abstract design typical of the1950s, and has bobbed hair, another popular style at the time, while her obi is decorated with a design reminiscent of atomic models. She is in a polling booth, in the midst of casting her vote, and the paneled partition is rendered in woodgrain and shading, as is the highly polished table top.
Paul Binnie
“The Hell Courtesan” Jigoku Dayú
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2014
Print size: 19 x 13 in.
Edition: 100
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $750
Description: In this print, there is some residue of the beauty of the courtesan in a rather late-Ukiyo-e way, but she is now blind, so that she can no longer admire her own beauty. Also, the face and the uchikake are drawn with different brushes, creating very distinct outlines, and the King of Hell appears with his mirror along with the demons and the tortured souls all over her uchikake. The print was inspired by Watanake Kyosai's paintings of hell, and the Binnie seal below his signature is in the form of a tortured soul's skull. The print employs silver mica on the skull seal and embossing for Binnie's name in the lower margin.
Paul Binnie
“Umbrellas” Kasa
Hon Ga Dori series
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2014
Print size: Dai-oban, 18.5 x 13 inches
Image size: 17.5 x 11.5 inches
Edition: 100
Desc: The title is printed in silver metallic ink in the left margin. Signed and numbered in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
September 2014 sees the launch of a new series of tattoo prints, one of the most long-lasting themes in my woodblock print work, with an unusual new method for creating the tattoo design. The first print in this series is called 'Kasa' (Umbrella or Umbrellas), due to the two umbrellas in the design, purple behind the model and green in the tattoo itself. Happening upon an antique woodblock, by an anonymous artist of around 1720-30, I was inspired to reuse the image which shows two figures, one protecting the other from rain with an umbrella while the latter is taking a bath outdoors. I decided to colour the antique keyblock/tattoo in 'benizuri' (pink printing) colours, a limited palette of orange-pink, green and russet-pink, used for woodblock print production around the time the block was carved, a stage on the way to full-colour printing later in the 18th century.
I decided to call this series 'Hon Ga Dori', a variation on the literary phrase 'Hon Ka Dori', a technique in Japanese poetry for using phrases from past poems in new works to add to the richness of the imagary. Since in this series I shall be recycling antique blocks as the tattoo designs, it seems to me I'm doing something very similar to the old poets, quoting from the masters of the past to add lustre to my new works. The title is printed in silver metallic ink in the left margin, and the extra-large size of these sheets is the same as my recent Bijin (beauties) series, at 47 x 33cm (18.5 x 13 inches). The design is produced in an edition of 100.
Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“A Thousand Stitch Belt” Senninbari
Senninbari / A Thousand Stitch Belt - Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2014
Print size: 47 x 33 cm / 18.5 x 13 in.
Image size: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
The series and print titles are embossed in the left margin and facsimile signature Binnie is embossed in the lower margin. Gold leaf, silver and bronze metallic pigments, mica on the collars and embossing, as well as around 30 printed colours are employed.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
"The design for the year 1940 is called Senninbari, or A Thousand Stitch Belt. These belts, which may date back to the 17th Century, are sewn by a thousand passers-by, one stitch each, as a lucky charm given by a woman to a warrior. By the period of the Asian War of the late 1930s, and the Pacific War of the early 1940s, prepared strips of fabric were sold, printed with a thousand crimson circles, each of which would then be stitched and the gift wrapped around the stomach of the soldier, sailor or airman going to fight. Some Western collectors, particularly those in the United States, may find this period difficult, but my emphasis is entirely on the often heroic struggle of women left behind on the home front, not the fighting itself, and it should be remembered that Japan was under a military dictatorship as fascist as any in Europe at the time.
The subject was suggested by a print by Iwata Sengai, an illustrator and artist on the inter-war years, of Women with Thousand Stich Belts from 1937, and a poster for a song of the Dai Nippon Kokubou Fujin Kai (Greater Japan National Defence Women's Association), as noted on the sash the young woman wears. She also wears a 'kappogi' a type of apron or pinafore over her kimono, somewhat symbolic of her role as a wife, so we may imagine she is asking strangers to stitch the belt for her husband, called up to fight. The writer Shoken Joshi stated that 'To me, the "Senninbari' is the most beautiful scene that can be created on the street." Generally women would place themselves near busy public locations, such as shrines, street corners or railway stations, to stop passers-by, and here, our young wife stands before the Japanese flag.
As with all of this series, the print is in an edition of 100, is 47 x 33 cm and employs gold leaf, silver and bronze metallic pigments, mica on the collars and embossing, as well as around 30 printed colours. Tiny embossed and sliver-printed aeroplanes on her two kimono suggest that her husband is a pilot." Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“A Café Waitress of 1930” Senkyuhyaku Sanjúnen no Kafé no Jokyú
Senkyuhyaku Sanjúnen no Kafé no Jokyú / A Café Waitress of 1930 - Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2013
Print size: 47 x 33 cm / 18.5 x 13 in.
Image size: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
The series and print titles are embossed in the left margin and facsimile signature Binnie is embossed in the lower margin, as are geometric details on the obi. Signed and numbered in pencil.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
"This design took a full six months to complete, and although the main colour scheme is an autumnal black and orange, it uses over 70 colours and shades, including bronze and silver metallic pigment, mica, embossing and 23.5 carat gold leaf, as well as many areas of detailed bokashi, or hand-shading, to give for example a softness to the background and the waves of the girl's hair.
The café became an important cultural site in inter-war Japan, and as well as providing employment and thus independent income for women, it was a place frequented by the writers and thinkers of the Taisho and early Showa Periods. Waitresses became one of the main attractions of the many cafés which spread throughout Japan, and poetry, novels and popular songs were dedicated to them. I decided to show this particular beauty in 'profil perdu', turning slightly away from the viewer, so we can see she has not cut her hair but left it long, as many did, and styled it with deep Marcel Waves, a very popular style of the time. Her obi is the most elaborate I have ever printed and uses over 30 colours including bronze, silver and deep embossing, many of which appear no-where else in the print but only as a small detail in the obi. This obi and her kimono too are based on authentic Japanese Art Deco designs, as are the silhouettes of the gramophone and chandeliers in the background, which come from an Imperial palace. The black kimono - printed with dense black baren sujizuri, or swirly line printing - features a unique translucent orange mica overlay of dots to add to the many oranges in the piece. Her hair comb is lacquered with a design of a gilded Mount Fuji amongst its foothills, derived from another Japanese Deco object in lacquer, anticipating the near-obsession artists and designers would have with this mountain during the nationalistic 1930s and the war years which followed." Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“A Modern Girl of 1920” Senkyuhakunijuunen no Moga
Senkyuhakunijuunen no Moga / A Modern Girl of 1920 - Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2013
Print size: 47 x 33 cm / 18 ½ x 13 in.
Image size: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Signed, numbered and titled.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
"The Japanese title Moga, is a contraction of the first two syllables of the two words of the phrase; i.e. 'modan' (modern) and 'garu' (girl). Moga were a cultural phenomenon similar to flappers in the West, young women who escaped from the paternalism and family controls of previous decades and did many things the older generations found shocking. They cut their hair into shorter styles, wore western-style clothes, smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol - such as the Manhattan cocktails we see here - while dancing or flirting with young men (hence two cocktails), things we might take for granted today, but which were a complete break with expectations of more traditional Japanese society. The 1920s were an economic boom period, and young women could have jobs that gave them freedom to live their lives away from controls and restrictions imposed by their parents’ generation. A flood of images and ideas from the West entered Japan between the wars, and the colour scheme of this design reflects the red, white and blue of the USA, Britain and France, all countries Moga were fascinated by.
There is a famous and rare print by the Shin Hanga (New Prints) artist Kobayakawa Kiyoshi called Horoyoi (Tipsy) of 1930, and this was a reference point for Moga, particularly in the strong deep-red background. However, Kiyoshi seems to criticise his slightly drunk, chubby and bleary-eyed model, whereas Paul Binnie's feeling about the new freedoms of the period is one of wholehearted support, and he celebrates the new-found independence women were taking for themselves at this time.
The new print is in the same format as the first two designs in the set, Kuchi-e and Ebicha Hakama, a large Dai-Oban format. As before in this set, the printing is lavish, and as well as 47 colour and bokashi (shading) printings, it employs mica, embossing, silver metallic pigment and 23-carat gold leaf." Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“Maroon Hakama” Ebicha Hakama
Maroon Hakama - Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2012
Print size: Dai-oban, 19 x 13 1/2 in.
Image size: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Signed, numbered and titled.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
The second print in the series Hyakunen no Hana (Flowers of a Hundred Years), is called Ebicha Hakama, or Maroon Hakama of 1910, referring to the trouser-like over-kimono worn by the girl in the print, which identifies her as a female university student. Women’s universities were founded in the first decade of the 20th century, such as the Japan Women’s College (now University) in 1901 in Tokyo and several others throughout Japan soon after. By 1910, it was becoming acceptable for young women to consider a university education instead of an early marriage, and this young woman wears the usual hakama over her kimono to symbolise a female student of that time. Maroon hakama became such a symbol of female education that the wife of the artist Kaburagi Kiyokata, a well-known intellectual called Tsuzuri Teru, was kept distant from the artist's family by his mother, who declared 'she did not like maroon hakama’ – and, we may assume, all that they implied about the wearer.
Hakama, worn by both men and women in Japan in the ancient past, allowed freedom of movement and kept the kimono clean rather like an apron, so were a useful item of clothing for certain classes of society and professions. Of course, in traditional depictions of Heian female writers, such as Murasaki Shikibu or Ono no Komachi, they are inevitably wearing hakama, but this garment had fallen out of favour with women until a revival in the late 19th century. We might imagine, in a typical Meiji mix of East and West, that this girl is wearing high, buttoned leather boots on her feet, and many female students even had a blouse under their kimono too.
Technically this is a very complex design – it employs 47 printings, including silver metallic pigment and 23 carat gold leaf in the hair ribbon motifs of laurels symbolising academic achievement, and there is fine mica admixed with the maroon of the hakama to give a dull lustre rather than a glitter, so suggest heavy wool serge. The title and Binnie in the bottom margin are embossed, and there are many areas of bokashi – hand shading, particularly on the kimono sleeves, which shade from mauve to yellow in two intensities of colour, overlaid with orange squares, also in bokashi. The print is a very large oban size closer to two Edo or Meiji-period oban prints, as was the first design.” Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“Frontispiece Illustration” Kuchi-e
Senkyuhyaku-nen no Kuchi-e / A Frontispiece Illustration of 1900 - Hyakunen no Hana series (Flowers of a Hundred Years)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2012
Print size: Dai-oban, 19 x 13 1/2 in.
Image size: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Signed, numbered and titled.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Gallery Price: $1,095
A new print design for May 2012, and also the first image in a new series of Japanese beauties, Kuchi-e, (Frontispiece Illustration), will be the first in a series called ‘Hyakunen no Hana’ or Flowers of a Hundred Years. The series will highlight the changing roles, political and social situations and lifestyles of women in Japan in the 20th century, decade by decade.
The full title of the first print is ‘Senkyuhyaku-nen no Kuchi-e’, or A Frontispiece Illustration of 1900, and it shows a young, middle-class woman looking at the woodblock printed illustration in the front of a copy of Bungei Kurabu, a very popular literary magazine aimed at a female audience. By 1900 there were several magazines like this one, all of which serialised works of new and older fiction and might include poetry and criticism. The important point is that by this time, the educational reforms of the Meiji government meant that women were now on an equal footing with men in being taught to read and write to a functioning level, so Japan had become a nation with universal literacy. The situation was such that the female population, which had remained largely neglected during the previous Edo period, now had the skills to read and write competently and had access to literature, even supporting a specific genre of literary magazines aimed at women.
The model has a reformed hairstyle, looser than the traditional Shimada hairstyle and closer to the circa 1900 ‘Gibson Girl’ hairstyle of Western nations, and she has chosen to have no combs or decorations in it, even though she continues to wear kimono and not Western dress, symbolic of the types of stylistic mixes one sees around Meiji 33 (1900). This new style of hair tends to be linked to educated, forward-thinking women in illustrations of the period, and so seems right for our literate magazine subscriber.
In the print the young woman is studying a kuchi-e of a Heian beauty, a popular subject at the time and also in this case a reference to the great literary women of the past, such as Murasaki Shikibu, Sei no Shonagon and Ono no Komachi, among many others. The kuchi-e is palely printed using baren sujizuri to suggest that we are seeing the reverse of the image, and the darker green on the cover of the book as well as the background are highlighted with sprinkled mica. In addition, the collar of her inner kimono is embellished with 24 carat gold squares, printed in a ‘kirigane’ or cut gold style, and the edge of the leaves of the magazine are embossed, as are the title and series title in the upper left margin, and Binnie in the lower margin.” Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“Sharaku’s Caricature” Sharaku no Giga
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2011
Image size: Oban - 15 x 11 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil with the series title cartouche in the upper right margin, the print title to the left.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Description: The print by Sharaku of Otani Oniji which forms the main tattoo design is one of the best-known prints of the enigmatic Sharaku, who only produced prints for a short time in 1794-5, but who has left us around 140 designs from that brief period. The unusual position of the hands in this print were the key to the dramatic, dynamic pose of the model, for though they represent the frozen action of the Kabuki stage, it could be the model is reacting to a loud noise or shock, and he is instinctively moving to protect himself. The similarity in the position of the hands of the tattoo and the live man is vital to this design. The small cartouche shows Ichikawa Ebizo, maybe one of the most striking faces in this group, and one which well deserves to be used as a caricature, and the seal here is Paul’s own self-caricature, made up of the letters of my name. This is the ninth design in the continuing series Edo Zumi Hayaku Shoku (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo) of tattoo prints.
Paul Binnie
“Eisen’s Blue-Printed Pictures” Eisen no Aizuri-e
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Medium: Japanese woodblock print
Date: 2011
Print size: 17.5 x 12 in.
Image size: Oban tate-e, 15 x 11 in.
Edition of 100
Black to grey bokashi (shaded) background w baren sujizuri ( swirly line-printing), blue-green and blue-purple accessories, red seal ‘Binnie’ in form of baren, the tool for printing hence suri/zuri, gold series title cartouche top right margin; ‘Edo Zumi Hyaku Shoku’. The print title to the left with the first portion, Eisen no, in the style of Eisen's signature, followed by a small aizuri-e (all blue print) of the original composition from which the tattoo is derived, signed in bronze-gold kanji, Bin-ni, with artist's red seal Binnie in the shape of a baren (the essential tool used by a woodblock printer to work the pigments into the paper), numbered and signed in pencil on the bottom margin.
Condition: Mint
Price: $695
Description: In this series, inspired by classic ukiyo-e of the 18th and 19th century, Binnie incorporates compositions by major artists in the form of tattoo designs on nudes. In each of the designs Binnie plays on various ukiyo-e themes, subjects and genres. For this design he references the short-lived but highly influential fashion for aizuri-e (all blue) prints which exploded onto the print market circa 1830 with the arrival of an analine dye imported from Europe (commonly known as Prussian blue). Unlike the natural pigments previously used for print-making; this blue was strong, vibrant, intense, and stable. The availability of such an appealing color inspired the tremendously successful landscape series, Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858); essentially creating an entirely new and seemingly insatiable market for landscape prints. Keisai Eisen (1790-1848), one of the leading bijin-ga artists at the time, also produced landscapes utilizing the new blue pigment. In fact, there is scarce (if not unique) fan print by Eisen dated 1829 in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art which is thought to be the earliest dateable aizuri-e. The Binnie seal in the shape of a baren is a play on the print title, ai-ZURI-e (blue printed picture), thus the baren is the tool used for 'suri' (printing).
The print depicts a view of a seated nude from behind, she leans on her left hand while raising her right hand to touch her coiffure in the takashimada ('high Shimada') style, the tattoo based on an ukiyo-e print by Eisen depicting a courtesan rolling a letter.
Paul Binnie
“Moon Viewing” Tsukimi
Medium: Kappazuri stencil print on black washi paper
Date: 2011
Print Size: 25 x 19 ½ in.
Image Size: 23 x 18 in.
Edition: 80
Description: Signed, titled and numbered at bottom margin with the artist's seal embedded in the composition.
Condition: Mint
Price: $895
Paul Binnie
“Hair Combing” Kamisuki
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2010
Print size: Dai-oban, 19 x 13 1/2 in.
Image size: 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
The mauve-purple kimono offsets the patterns of irises and butterflies, and includes subtle bokashi or shading in the flowers. Details include 22-carat gold leaf on the comb, lacquer printing in the hair, and extensive embossing to suggest the fabric of the kimono. The pink baren ’sujizuri’ background melts into hints of yellow, reflecting the tones of the kimono motifs. These effects have been achieved with 34 printings, including embossing and gold leaf.
Paul Binnie
“Twilight” Tasogare
Azuma nishiki bijin awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2010
Image size: Oban - 15 x 11 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil with the print and series title in black ink and red artist’s seal chop.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $925
Description: Tasogare / Twilight, was the name of one of the tragic lovers of Mitsuuji (Genji) in 'Nise Murasaki, Inaka Genji', by Ryutei Tanehiko, a 19th century parody novel (1829-1842) on the famous Genji Monogatari of the Heian period. There is also a Japanese verb ‘tasogarete iru’, meaning to daydream, or to gaze absent-mindedly, which seems appropriate to the dreamy expression of this young beauty. If you have seen Zabuton / Floor-Cushion, you will recognise the design, and here she appears in her original colour scheme, with a shaded yellow, pink and blue background, and on a pink cushion heightened with various pinks, silver metallic pigment and genuine 22c. gold leaf in a scattered cherry blossom pattern. Please note also that the cherry blossoms are quite different to those on the red-background version, and more blocks were carved for these colours to bring out the various flowers. There is extra shading in the body compared to other versions too, as well as an extra hair block and other additional shaded details.
Paul Binnie
“Kiyonaga’s Pipe” Kiyonaga no Kiseru
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Medium: Woodblock
Date: 2010
Image size: Oban - 15 x 11 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil with the series title cartouche in the upper right margin, the print title to the left.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $695
Description: Kioynaga no Kiseru / Kiyonaga’s Pipe plays with the basic blocks of Twilight / Tasogare and adds a motif taken from a triptych design by Torii Kiyonaga of the later 18th century. The original print shows a group of beauties enjoying a spring snowfall, and the central figure reaches up with her long bamboo pipe to the newly formed icicles hanging from the eaves to knock them off. Here it is as if the tattoo is reaching up to the long silver earring of the model, printed with silver, to tap it with her pipe. Pipes appear on the floor cushion and as the seal, and of course in the cartouche too, while the baren sujizuri background in swirling, shaded black and grey is shared with all the designs of the Edo Zumi series.
Paul Binnie
“Veranda - 2009” Engawa
Azuma Nishiki Bijin Awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2009
Print size: 17.5 x 12 in.
Image size: 15 x 11 in.
Description: Signed and numbered in pencil with red artist’s seal, surname embossed in the middle of the lower margin.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $925
Paul Binnie
“Utamaro's Erotica” Utamaro no shunga
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2004
Image size: 15 x 10 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“Morning Tears” Asa ni Namida
Azuma Nishiki Bijin Awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2009
Print size: 17.5 x 12 in.
Image size: 15 x 11 in.
Surname embossed in the middle of the lower margin. Printed on a heavier paper from Iwate prefecture.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $925
Paul Binnie
“Lingering Dreams” Yume no Ato
Japanese Woodblock Print
2009
Double oban - 19 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.
Signed and numbered in lower margin
Edition: 200
Self-carved and printed by the artist.
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Paul Binnie
“Phoenix” Ho-o
Japanese Woodblock Print
2009
Double oban - 19 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.
Signed and numbered in lower margin.
Edition: 200
Self-carved and printed by the artist.
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,150
Paul Binnie
“Maiko in Kyoto” Kyo Maiko
Azuma nishiki bijin awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2008
15 x 11 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $925 w museum quality frame - $1,250
Paul Binnie
“Harunobu's Bath” Harunobu no Furo
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2007
16 x 10 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $695
Paul Binnie
“Sword” Katana
Non-tattoo version of “Kunisada's Danjuro”
Japanese Woodblock Print
2006
15 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 30
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Kunisada's Danjuro” Kanisada no Danjuro
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2006
15 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“After the Bath” Furo agari
Azuma nishiki bijin awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2006
15 x 11 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: unframed - $995, w museum quality frame - $1,350
Paul Binnie
"Hokusai's Waterfalls" Hokusai no Tabi
Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2006
Image size: Oban - 15 x 11 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil with the series title cartouche in the upper right margin and the print title to the left.
Edition: 100.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Butterfly Bow” Cho musubi
Azuma nishiki bijin awase series: (A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2005
15 x 11 in.
Edition: 40 of 100
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Skillfully executed bokashi (gradation of colors) shading; extensive baren sujizuri (circles) in background; gold mica on upper and silver metallic waves lower obi (sash); gauffrage (embossing) to sleeve's butterflies and Binnie's name (margin); metallic-gold title; highly detailed carving. Printed from 14 blocks in 27 colors.
Paul Binnie
"Purple" Murasaki
Medium: Woodblock on handmade Japanese paper.
Year: 2005
Paper: 13.2 x 4.5 in.
Image: 12.25 x 4.125 in.
Signed "Paul Binnie" in pencil on the lower margin, artist's seal on bottom left corner in the image, title "Murasaki" embossed on the upper right.
Self-published by the artist.
Edition: 85 of 100.
Condition: Mint
Price: $280
Paul Binnie
“Autumn” Aki
Shiki Series (Four Seasons)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2004
17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
A.P.
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“Winter” Fuyu
Shiki Series (Four Seasons)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2003
17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“Spring” Haru
Shiki Series (Four Seasons)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2005
17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
A.P.
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“Summer” Natsu
Shiki Series (Four Seasons)
Japanese Woodblock Print
2003
17 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Edition: 50
Not available, wanted.
Paul Binnie
“Celadon Censer”
Japanese Woodblock Print
2004
15.5 x 10.5 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
This is the non-tattoo version of the print Yoshitoshi's Ghosts. Replacing the ghostly smoke for a plume of gofun printed in bokashi, the feel of this version is quite different.
Paul Binnie
“Yoshitoshi's Ghosts” Yoshitoshi no bakemono
Edo Sumi Hyaku Shoku - A hundred shades of ink of Edo
Japanese Woodblock Print
2004
15.5 x 10.5 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
This is Kuniyoshi's pupil, Yoshitoshi, who often made prints of ghosts, and here they are adapted to the tattoos and the smoke from the cense and his seal. The smoke-spirit is printed in white lacquer and a hideous skull-head is formed by the letters of his name.
Paul Binnie
“Behind the Hannya Mask” Ura hannya
Japanese Woodblock Print
2005
36 x 23.5 in.
Edition: 20
Signed and numbered.
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“Kuniyoshi's Cats” Kuniyoshi no neko
Edo Sumi Hyaku Shoku - A hundred shades of ink of Edo
Japanese Woodblock Print
2004.
15.5 x 10.5 in. Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
The cat tattoos on the model derive from a Kuniyoshi triptych of cats as stages of the Tokaido.
Paul Binnie
“Sleeping Woman” Nemuru onna
Japanese Woodblock Print
2004
12 x 17 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“Dragon and Demon” Ryu ni oni
Japanese Woodblock Print
1997
15 x 10.5 in.
Edition: 100
Signed and numbered.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
For this design, Binnie used a model who had the actual tattoo seen in the print. Often he usually creates the tattoo designs on his models, drawing from Ukiyo-e influences, as seen in his Edo zumi hyaku shoku series. In this particular case, the Dragon and Demon tattoo is a real one.
Paul Binnie
“Maple Leaves” Momiji
Japanese Woodblock Print
1994
Image size: 14.5 x 10 in.
Edition: 50
Signed and numbered at bottom right margin in pencil. Self carved and printed by the artist.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Candlelight” Rosoku no akari
Medium: kappazuri (stencil print) on black washi paper
Date: 1994
Size: 25 x 17 in.
Edition: 30
Self carved and printed by the artist.
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,050
This print was originally conceived as a tattoo print, but in the end, this print focused instead on the light effect on the male torso.
Fukei-ga (Landscapes)
Paul Binnie
“Cranes”
Woodblock
2016
Large Hosoban format - 33 x 15 cm, 13 x 6 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil, with blind embossing for the title and my small circular Binnie seal top right.
Edition: 50
Condition: Mint
Price: $325
"'Cranes' features the machines not the birds, silhouetted in blue-black against a rosy rising sun below pink and purple clouds, with a flash of blue sky above. These are modern hydraulic cranes, used in the construction of tall buildings, as they can be raised up floor by floor as the framework is completed around them; this particular Japanese type is especially popular in Tokyo and other bog cities, with many skyscrapers under construction. I was keen to try something a little less tradtional while staying aesthetically within modern Japan, even though the sunrise sky is very romatic.” Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“Tokyo Nostalgia & Tokyo Night (Tokyo no Yoru)”
Japanese woodblock and reduction woodblock prints
2016
Paper size: Hosoban - 33 x 12 cm, 13 x 5 in.
Editions: 60 and 100 respectively.
Signed with seal in the image and titled in embossing in the upper left margin, as well as the pencil edition number and signature in the lower margin.
Description: On a narrow, darkened Tokyo street, mysterious figures pass beneath the lattice of overhead cables, power lines and telephone wires, all below a sky peppered with stars.
Condition: Mint
Price: $310 each
Paul Binnie
“Lugano”
Meishou to no Tabi (Travels with the Master) series
Japanese Woodblock Print
2012
Image size: 16.5 x 11.8 in.
Signed, numbered and titled.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Description:
Lugano is a town on the shores of Lake Lugano in southern Switzerland, not far from the Italian border and Milan, and was depicted in 1925 by Yoshida Hiroshi in his ‘Europe’ series. Paul Binnie has decided to make a print of it to add to his ‘Meishou to no Tabi’ (Travels with the Master) series in which he revisits places Yoshida depicted and makes his own impression of the place. It is the 7th design in the series: ‘Cloud Shadows, Grand Canyon’, ‘Acropolis- Night’, ‘Hydra’, ‘New York Sunset’, ‘New York Night’ and ‘Niagara Falls’ are the earlier prints.
Yoshida apparently sat on the terrace in front of the cathedral of San Lorenzo, a Lombardy Renaissance edifice, and looked over the town towards the town hall, which appears as the second pink-roofed building from the right against the lake in his print and is yellow in Binnie’s print. He was so impressed by the beautiful bell tower of this cathedral that he included it in his print. A couple of buildings that border the lake in Yoshida’s print are also still there and appear in Paul’s too, and the distant view over to the town on the other side of the lake is unchanged, though due to his vertical format he was able to show the whole mountain behind as a backdrop.
Paul Binnie
“Yomeimon”
Nihon Meisho Zu-e series (Famous Views of Japan)
Japanese Woodblock Print, printed on 100% mulberry washi from Iwate Prefecture in Japan
2011
Print Size: 16 ½ x 12 in.
Image size: 14 ½ x 10 in.
Edition: 100
Signed and numbered, with artist's seal and title at lower left. Employs 27 printings. Night view of Yomeimon (Gate) within the Toshogu Shrines of Nikko, dedicated to the first shoguns of the Tokugawa period.
Condition: Mint
Price: $625
This is the sixth design in the Famous Views of Japan series. The deep blue palette is similar to Himeji Castle. The print required twenty-seven printings including the blind-printing of the signature on the bottom margin. Yomeimon gate is located within the Toshogu Shrines of Nikko, dedicated to the first Tokugawa shoguns.
Paul Binnie
“Cloud Shadows, Grand Canyon”
Meishou to no Tabi series (Travels With the Master)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 16 x 23 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
2007
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,495
Paul Binnie
“Niagara Falls”
Meishou to no Tabi series (Travels With the Master)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Print size: 26 1/2 x 18 1/2 in.
Image size: 23 1/2 x 16 1/2 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,495
Paul Binnie
“Mountain Temple in Yamagata” Yamagata no Yamadera
Nihon meisho zu-e series (Famous Views of Japan)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
2005
Condition: MInt
Price: unframed - $595, w museum quality frame - $895
Paul Binnie
“Sankeien Gardens” Sankeien
Nihon meisho zu-e series (Famous Views of Japan)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 10 x 15 in.
Edition: 100
2005
Condition: Mint
Price: unframed - $595, w museum quality frame - $895
Paul Binnie
“Himeji Castle” Himejijo
Nihon meisho zu-e series (Famous Views of Japan)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 10 x 15 in.
Edition: 100
2004
Condition: Mint
Price: On Request
Paul Binnie
“The Torii Gate at Miyajima” Miyajima no torii
Nihon meisho zu-e series (Famous Views of Japan)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
2003
Condition: Mint
Price: unframed - $625, w museum quality frame - $925
Paul Binnie
“Red Lantern” Aka chochin
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 14 1/2 x 10 in.
Edition: 20
2002
Condition: Mint
Price: $650
Paul Binnie
"Red Fuji - Mount Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi" Aka Fuji
Kawaguchi-ko no Fujisan, Nihon meisho zu-e series (Famous Views of Japan)
Woodblock, 2002.
Image size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
Not available, wanted.
Paul Binnie
“Snow at Asakusa” Asakusa no yuki
Shitamachi setsugekka series (Snow, Moon and Flowers in Downtown Tokyo)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1998
Condition: Mint
Special Price: unframed - $650, framed - $950
Paul Binnie
“Moon over Shinobazu” Shinobazu no tsuki
Shitamachi setsugekka series (Snow, Moon and Flowers in Downtown Tokyo)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1998
Artist's Proof
Condition: Excellent
Price: on Request
Paul Binnie
“Cherry Blossoms at Ueno” Ueno no Sakura
Shitamachi setsugekka series (Snow, Moon and Flowers in Downtown Tokyo)
Japanese Woodblock Print
Image Size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1998
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Kobo" Sunburst
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2016
Size: 25.5 x 12.5 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Edition: 40
Condition: Mint
Price: $695
Description: Kóbó shows several shafts of light bursting through the clouds on a blustery day, and these illuminate the Tor, or granite outcrop, on the high moorlands. I have used gomazuri (sesame printing, ie. broken colour) in yellow ochre and violet on the rocks, and baren sujizuri again to enliven the large grey cloud areas, and there are blue edges to some of the shafts of light, an effect I observed in nature. Looking carefully, one might see the shape of a traveller dwarfed by the rock formation. Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
"Kokuran" Black Storm
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2016
Size: 25.5 x 12.5 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Edition: 40
Condition: Mint
Price: $695
Description: Kokuran shows an old windmill in a marshy grassland landscape, about to be engulfed in a heavy rainstorm, and the deep black cloud of the upper area was printed three times with concentrated sumi (charcoal ink) to make a dense velvety black, against which stripes of silver rain stand out. Sharp eyed viewers might notice the lower rain just above the horizon is printed in two colours, blue-grey and blackish purple, to give more depth to the distance. The farthest heavy rain on the left is printed with baren sujizuri (printing with the edge of the baren to create lines), so each print is slightly different. Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“Lightning” Inazuma
Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print
Date: 2010
26 x 13 in.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Edition: 40
SOLD
Description: Submited to the CWAJ exhibition in Tokyo, one of the best international forums in Japan for new prints. ‘Inazuma’ means Lightning, but is a literary term that brings ideas of fertilising the fields derived from ancient poetry. I have chosen a large size for this design – 66 x 32cm, or around 26 x 13 inches – to give the feeling of the verticality of the bolt of lightning as it crackles between dark clouds and rain to earth. This print is in a small edition of only 40, but still employs 14 different printings, including three printings of solid black overlaid to achieve a deep, opaque darkness in the heaviest clouds. Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie
“Getsumei (Moonlight Dance)”
Medium: Reduction Woodcuts, Diptych
Date: 2014
Image size: 13 x 5 inches each.
Editions: 100
Description: Hosoban prints in tones of Prussian Blue with little touches of red, black-bronze and silver.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Cat in the Rain and Deer in the Snow” Ame ni Neko and Yuki ni Shika
Medium: Reduction Woodcuts
Date: 2013
Print size: 13 x 5 inches each
Editions: 100
Description: Hosoban monochrome prints entirely in shades of Prussian Blue with the Yuki ni Shika design is lightly spattered with applied gofun for extra snow.
Condition: Mint
Price: $375 each
Paul Binnie
“Dawn” Ake
Woodblock
2013
Paper size: 10.4 x 42.3 cm. / 16 x 4 inches
Signed, numbered and titled
Edition: 100
Desc: Self-printed, an addition to the series of cloudscapes started in 2000.
Condition: Mint
Price: $325
Paul Binnie
“Dusk” Yoi
Woodblock
2013
Paper size: 10.4 x 42.3 cm. / 16 x 4 inches
Signed, numbered and titled
Edition: 100
Desc: Self-printed, an addition to the series of cloudscapes started in 2000.
Condition: Mint
Price: $325
Paul Binnie
“Purple Clouds” Shiun
Woodblock
9 1/2 x 4 in.
Edition: 40
2000
Condition: Mint
Price: $275
Paul Binnie
“Floating Clouds” Ukigumo
Woodblock
9 1/2 x 4 in.
Edition: 40
2000
Condition: Mint
Price: $275
Paul Binnie
“Vast Heavens” Tenku
Woodblock
11 x 4 in.
Edition: 50
2000
Condition: Mint
Price: $275
Paul Binnie
“Dawn Moon” Gyogetsu
Woodblock
11 x 4 in.
Edition: 50
2002
Condition: Mint
Price: $275
Paul Binnie
“Autumn Sky” Akizora
Woodblock
15 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
Edition: 40
2000
Condition: Mint
Price: $375
Paul Binnie
“Night Sky” Yozora
Woodblock
15 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
Edition: 40
2000
Condition: Mint
Price: $375
Paul Binnie
“Afterglow” Yuyake
Woodblock
4.1 x 16.3 in.
Edition: 40
2009
Self-carved and printed by the artist, signed in pencil on the lower margin, artist’s seal.
Condition: Mint
Price: $375
Paul Binnie
“Orchids - Morning” Asa no ran
Woodblock
12 1/2 x 4 in.
Edition: 50
2006
Condition: Mint
Price: $275
Paul Binnie
“Orchids - Night” Yoru no ran
Woodblock
12 1/2 x 4 in.
Edition: 50
2006
Condition: Mint
Price: $275
Kabuki
Paul Binnie
“Backbend” Ebizori
Woodblock
1998
Image size: double-oban - 24 x 17 in.
Signed, numbered and titled with red artist’s seal chop.
Edition: 50
Condition: Excellent
Price: $1,995
Description: Ebizori, the Backbend, is so called because the actor is supposed to curl back like a cooked prawn and in the case of great dancers like Tamasaburo, the long hair of his wig actually touches the stage. This is a very difficult pose and in the play Seki no to, the character curls back because she is threatened with an emormous axe.
Paul Binnie, A Dialogue with the Past
Paul Binnie
“Nakamura Shikan as Ohatsu in Kagamiyama” Shikan – Ohatsu
Heisei yokusha o-kagami series (A Great Mirror of the Actors of the Heisei Period)
Woodblock
1997
Image size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $625
Description: “Nakamura Shikan is now a Living National Treasure and one of the leading onnagata on stage today. In Kagamiyama (Mirror Mountain), he played the faithful maidservant Ohatsu, who avenges her mistress’s disgrace and subsequent suicide by planning the murder of her lady’s cruel tormentor Iwafuji, a female role played by a male-role actor.” Paul Binnie, A Dialogue with the Past
Paul Binnie
"Nakamura Utaemon as Agemaki in Sukeroku" Utaemon - Agemaki
Heisei yokusha o-kagami series (A Great Mirror of the Actors of the Heisei Period)
Woodblock
1997
Dai oban tate-e 17 3/8 by 12 1/8 in.
Image size: 15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Nakamura Utaemon VI was a Living National Treasure and was thought by many to be the greatest annagata in post-war Kabuki.
Paul Binnie
“Wait a Moment” Shibaraku
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print on black washi paper with silver pigment highlighting his hair; signed in the composition, signed and numbered at bottom right margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal and date seal
17 1/2 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
1994
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“The Tweezers” Kenuki
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print
1994
Image size: 17.5 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
Signed in the composition, Binnie, signed and numbered at bottom right margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal bin-ni, and date sealed. Self carved and printed by the artist.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“General Kagekiyo” Kagekiyo
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print on black washi paper with silver pigment highlighting his hair; signed in the composition, signed and numbered at bottom right margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal and date seal
17 1/2 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
1994
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“The Hero Sukeroku” Sukeroku
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print on black washi paper; signed in the composition, signed and numbered at bottom right margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal and date seal
17 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
1994
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Benkei in Kanjincho” Kanjincho Benkei
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print on black washi paper with highlights in gold and brass pigment; signed in the composition, signed and numbered at bottom margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal and date seal
17 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
1994
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“The Arrowhead” Yanone
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print on black washi paper; signed in the composition, signed and numbered at bottom margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal and date seal
17 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
1994
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“The Repelling Hero” Oshimodoshi
Kabuki juhachiban series (The Famous 18 Plays)
Kappazuri stencil print
1994
Image size: 17 x 12 in.
Edition: 80
Signed in the composition, Binnie, signed and numbered at bottom right margin in red crayon, followed by artist's seal bin-ni, and date sealed. Self carved and printed by the artist.
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“The Maiden at Dojo Temple” Musume Dojoj
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 1/2 in.
Edition: 45
1995
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Ichikawa Danjuro in Shibaraku” Danjuro Shibaraku
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1996
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Ichikawa Danshiro as Benkei” Danshiro - Benkei
Kabuki okubi-e series (Large-head Portraits of Kabuki)
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1996
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Nakamura Ganjiro in Sonezaki Shunju” Ganjiro Sonezaki Shinju
Kabuki okubi-e series (Large-head Portraits of Kabuki)
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1996
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Hat Dance in Musume Dojoji / Dojoji boshi odori”
Japanese Woodblock Print
1996
Image size: hosoban - 14 x 7 in.
Signed and numbered with red artist’s seal.
Edition: 50
Condition: Mint
Price: $525
Paul Binnie
“Nakamura Jakuemon in Fuji Musume” Jakuemon Fuji Musume
Kabuki okubi-e series (Large-head Portraits of Kabuki)
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1997
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Ichikawa Danjuro as Benkei in Kanjincho” Danjuro - Benkei
Heisei yokusha o-kagami series (A Great Mirror of the Actors of the Heisei Period)
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1997
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Bando Tamasaburo in The Heron Maiden” Tamasaburo Sagi Musume
Heisei yokusha o-kagami series (A Great Mirror of the Actors of the Heisei Period)
Japanese Woodblock Print
15 x 10 in.
Edition: 100
1997
Condition: Mint
Price: $595
Paul Binnie
“Nap” Hirune
Medium: Sosaku Woodblock print
Date: 2013
Print size: large oban; i.e. 19 x 12.5 in.
Edition: 30
Description: male nude of a black model, printed on persimmon-red paper in opaque colours.
Condition: Excellent
Price: $695
Paul Binnie
“Narikomaya no mudagaki”
Kabuki actor cartoon
Japanese Woodblock Print
9.4 x 10.6 in.
Edition: 35
2008
Self-carved and printed by the artist, signed in pencil on the lower margin, artist’s seal. The print's title is based on a famous series of kabuki actor cartoons by Utagawa Kuniyoshi: Nitakaragurakabe no mudagaki - Scribblings on a storehouse wall, made in 1847.
Condition: Mint
Price: $350
Ann Aspinwall
Donald Baechler
Rica Bando
Will Barnet
McArthur Binion
Paul Binnie
Richard Bosman
Christian Bozon
Richard Lang Chandler
Chuck Close
Tara Donovan
Aline Feldman
Caio Fonseca
Jane Goldman
Jean Gumpper
Richard Haas
Keiko Hara
Yvonne Jacquette
Deborah Kass
Alex Katz
Daniel Kelly
Robert Kipniss Prints
Robert Kipniss Paintings
Patsy Krebs
Rebecca Last
Robert Mangold
Maser
Betty Merken
Frederick Mershimer
Melissa Meyer
Peter Milton
Anja Percival
Joshua Rome
Peri Schwartz
David Shapiro
Donald Sultan
Bernar Venet
Mikio Watanabe
Tom Wesselmann
Art Werger
Yutaka Yoshinaga
Linda Adato
Michael Arike
Daniele Barraco
William Behnken
Grace Bentley-Scheck
Walter Buttrick
Holly Downing
Rikizo Fukao
Eric Goldberg
Su Li Hung
Sean Hurley
Takuji Kubo
Mary Prince
DeAnn L Prosia
Ilse Schreiber-Noll
Esterio Segura
Allan Simpson
Richard Sloat
Francisco Souto
Emily Trueblood
Murray Zimiles