IKEDA MASUO (1934-1997) was a well-known Japanese painter, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, ceramist, novelist, and film director. He started winning prize after prize in the 1960s, including the Governor of Tokyo's Prize (1962) and the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art Prize (1964). By 1961, he had established himself as a printmaker by winning the Grand Prize for Printmaking at the Tokyo International Biennale of Art, but it was in foreign countries that he achieved his greatest triumphs: in 1961, the Prix d'Excellence at the Young Artists' International Biennale in Paris; in 1965, the Grand Prix at the International Print-making Biennale in Ljubljana; in 1966, the First Prize at the International Engraving Biennale in Cracow, and first prize at the Biennales of Vienna and Venice, where he was only the second Japanese artist to win in this category, after Munakata Shiko in 1956. He was the first Japanese artist to have a one-man show at the New York Museum of Modern Art (1965). Ikeda was always on the move and spent two years in New York (1965-66), then settled for a year in Berlin (1967). Ikeda was producing prints in his studio in New York from 1969 until he returned to Japan in 1980 and extended his brilliant talent beyond printmaking. In 1977, he won the 77th Akutagawa Prize (the most prestigious literary award in Japan) for his novel, Offering in the Aegean, and directed the film adaptation of the same title in 1979. His vigorous artistic activity even extended to the production of ceramic works from around 1983 onward. The Ikeda Masuo Art Museum is located in Nagano, Japan. His works are in the collection of many public and private institutions, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

(Source: Sakura Fine Art)