Paul Binnie
Scottish, b. 1967
Travels with the Master: New York Night (dark teal variant, 67/100)
(Meishou to no tabi: Nyu-yoruku)
signed at lower left in silver kanji, Bin-ni, with artists round seal Binnie, the series title on the upper left margin, Meishou To No Tabi, followed by print title Nyu-yoruku, title in penciled English, New York Night, on the bottom margin and numbered 67/100, with Binnie blind-printed at center, and signed in pencil at right, Paul Binnie, 2008, background enhanced by the artist in 2017
chuban tate-e 11 3/8 by 8 1/8 in., 29 by 20.5 cm
This print was produced in 2008 as part of Binnie's Travels with the Master series, a landscape series inspired by the woodblock prints of Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950), the artist whose work provided Binnie with the impetus to travel to Japan and learn traditional woodblock printmaking and who Binnie considers his spiritual teacher. In 1928 Yoshida depicted a similar view of the Woolworth Building which was, at that time, the tallest building in the world.
In 2008, Binnie's New York Night was commission by Scholten Japanese Art in an edition limited to 100 numbered impressions. While the composition is largely based on Yoshida's version, the gradation of the dark blue to inky-black sky was rendered in gomazuri (lit. sesame seed printing) in a deliberate reference to early landscapes by Kawase Hasui (1883-1957).
Following a cathartic purge of his studio in 2016 during which nearly all of the woodblocks for his completed editions met their end in a wood chipper, the New York blocks escaped destruction, presenting Binnie an opportunity which he had never considered before- to tinker with the palette on a completed edition. The speckles of un-inked paper from the gomazuri printing in the sky allowed Binnie to produce three small batches of variant impressions by enhancing the background color with saturated Prussian blue, deep violet, and this version with dark (nearly black) teal primarily comprised of Prussian blue and viridian green.
price: $480
