Takagi, Shiro

Shirō Takagi was born in Hirosaki, attended Musashino College of Fine Arts in Tokyo, but soon left because of “academic disciplines which bore no relation to the artist’s ideals… [and] the nonexistence of a print faculty.” He studied moku hanga (woodblock prints) with Amano Kunihiro, a leading figure in late 20th century Japanese printmaking (from the same town), but is largely self-taught.

His work has been divided by historians into two phases – before 1971 his predominant pallet was reds and ochres used primarily in abstracted
landscapes and post-1971 his work is more representational and green was added to his pallet.