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NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971
NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971
NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971
NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971
NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971
NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971

NAOKO MATSUBARA, "CINCINNATI II", c. 1971

$450.00

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Description:

  • Edition: 38/100
  • Woodblock Print
  • Undated, c.1971
  • Signed lower right
  • Titled and numbered lower left
  • Sheet: 18 x 24.5  inches (45.2 x 62.2 cm)
  • Framed: 25 x 31 inches (63.5 x 78.7 cm)
  • Condition: Creasing to Paper 
  • Framed under glass floating in bamboo-style wood frame

The Artist: Naoko Matsubara (Japanese/Canadian, b. 1937)

Naoko Matsubara is an internationally distinguished Japanese/Canadian woodcut print artist who is widely celebrated for her bold, expressive, and deeply spiritual relief prints. Born in 1937 on Shikoku Island, Japan, into an ancient Shinto family, she grew up in the historic city of Kyoto, where her father served as a senior priest. This childhood, deeply immersed in the sacred groves, traditional architecture, and quiet spirituality of Japanese shrines, profoundly shaped her creative consciousness. Matsubara pursued her formal education at the Kyoto Academy of Fine Arts, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1960, before moving to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar to complete her Master of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University in 1962. After a brief period studying at the Royal College of Art in London and serving as a personal assistant to the legendary German-American illustrator Fritz Eichenberg in New York, she permanently immigrated to Canada in 1972.

Matsubara’s signature style centers heavily on traditional Japanese woodblock printing, which she has dynamically modernized into an instrument of intense personal expression. Unlike many printmakers who adhere to strict preliminary sketches, Matsubara frequently carves her tools directly into the woodblock layout, allowing a spontaneous, raw energy to emerge within the grain. Her prints are instantly recognizable for their fluid, thick line work, dramatic interplay of negative space, and vibrant application of color. 

Naoko Matsubara’s woodblock prints from the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as Cincinnati II, capture a fascination period where she applied her traditional Japanese training to the architecture and spirit of American cities.  While her work is frequently celebrated for its organic, spiritual depictions of nature, her urban architectural landscapes explore the rhythmic movement and geometric energy of North American cities. Prints like Cincinnati II, which is preserved in prominent museum collections such as the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago, demonstrate her incredible ability to compress urban structures into dynamic, bold visual narratives. Rather than relying on strict, literal realism, she translates city skylines and local monuments into interlocking geometric shapes and sweeping negative spaces that capture the actual "vibe" and motion of the city. Her most prominent thematic body of work centers around nature, notably compiled in her 2024 monograph and multi-city exhibition cycle, In Praise of Trees, where trees are treated not as passive scenery, but as animated, pulsing, and deeply spiritual entities. Beyond nature, her art masterfully spans a diverse range of human experiences, including portraiture, motherhood, music, classical dance, and sacred architecture.

Today, Matsubara remains exceptionally active and continues to live and create prolifically from her home studio in Oakville, Ontario. In recognition of her extraordinary global contributions to art and cross-cultural dialogue, she was awarded one of Japan's highest honors, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, during an official Imperial decoration ceremony in the spring of 2026.

Her masterpieces are preserved across a vast network of premier global museums and public institutions. In Canada, her large-scale woodcut murals and collages are highly visible at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and her major solo exhibitions have been featured at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In the United States, over forty of her prints are housed within the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, alongside prominent archives at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while international institutions like the British Museum in London, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and the Albertina Museum in Vienna also proudly exhibit her relief works.

The Story: From a private collector in Toronto.

Shipping Information: Packaging and shipping within Canada is $200. At checkout, you will have the option to insure your purchase for shipping at up-to-$500; you will be able to select the option you prefer from the drop down menu. International shipping available. If located in the Greater Toronto Area, no charge for shipping and packaging if picked up from Wall Fiction's office; call before purchasing.


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