Displaced from Art Institute, artist heads to SSA

The tragic plane crashes Tuesday, Sept. 11, into the World Trade Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., cast a pall over the nation as many businesses and public institutions had to shut their doors for fear of further terrorist attacks. One such closing affected the Art Institute of Chicago’s current exhibit of Japanese woodblock prints by the famed artist Un’ichi Hiratsuka (1895-1997), and a planned demonstration of this 4,000 year old Japanese art form by his youngest daughter, the acclaimed artist Keiko Hiratsuka Moore, on Wednesday afternoon.

Tuesday’s tragedy did not stop Moore from sharing this ancient and contemporary art with several St. Scholastica Academy art students. The Art Institute’s exhibit of Hiratsuka’s art is courtesy of a St. Scholastica alumna and her husband, Louann and Ted Van Zelst of Glenview, IL. Their 160 prints, the largest collection of Hiratsuka’s work, were on exhibit at the institute until Sept. 23.

“[Moore] was scheduled to teach at the Art Institute and give a tour of the gallery. We didn’t want to disappoint her since she came specifically to demonstrate and talk about her father’s work. So, we thought of St. Scholastica,” said collector Ted Van Zelst. “The progressiveness of the school and its appreciation of arts in the curriculum made this a perfect place for her lecture and demonstration.”

“We were very excited to share this with the girls,” said Louann Van Zelst.

Moore demonstrated the woodblock printing process from sketching a design on bamboo tracing paper, gluing the sketch to a woodblock, carving the sketch into the block and then painting the block with sumi ink—soot from burnt pine trees. Then, Moore showed students how to press mulberry fiber paper to absorb the ink from the block and create the print.

“My father revolutionized the technique of controlling all aspects of the printing process. Before, there would be one artist who would sketch. Then another artist would carve the woodblock and another would actually create the print. He was the first artist to do all of these things,” Moore said. Throughout the demonstration, she infused stories of her family history and anecdotal stories about her father and his work.