Paul Binnie

Scottish, b. 1967

Flowers of a Hundred Years: Protest March [of 1960]
(Hyakunen no hana: 1960 Nen no Kogi no Koshin)

the series title Hyakunen no Hana and print title, 1960 Nen no Kogi no Koshin in karazuri ('blind-printing') on upper left margin, signed in kanji, Bin-ni at lower left followed by red artist's seal Binnie, numbered and signed in pencil on the bottom margin, 32/100, Paul Binnie, ca. May 2016

dai oban tate-e 18 5/8 by 13 1/4 in., 47.3 by 33.8 cm

This is the seventh print in the series exploring the women of the 20th century. Here Binnie depicts a young beauty turning away from the chaos of a march held in protest to the Japanese government's decision to continue to allow US military bases in Japan to hold nuclear weapons. The image in the background of the crowd and placards were taken from actual film footage of a 1960 protest- which is why Binnie chose to keep the sepia tonality of the original black and white film. She wears a t-shirt with the anti-nuclear peace symbol which is surrounded with bronze and silver metallic pigments and 23 carat gold leaf. For the keyblock outline he tried to replicate the rough crayon line drawings of the period which was more challenging to carve than a classic smooth key-block line.

(inv. no. C-0878)

price: $1,150