Shoichi Hasegawa, whose prints are included in this exhibition, was born in Yaizu, Japan in 1929. Now a world famous artist, Hasegawa held his first exhibition in Tokyo in 1957 and after further exhibitions in Japan travelled to Paris in 1961. There he studied the techniques of wood block printing at the print workshop of Stanley William Hayter. This workshop, Atelier 17, was associated with many of the leading figures in twentieth century painting such as Miro, Ernst, Masson and Pollack. It was started by Hayter in Paris in 1926, moved to New York during the Second World War before returning to Paris in 1950 where it remained until it finally closed in the mid 1970’s.

The six prints on display at the Harlequin all date from this Paris period. Since then Hasegawa, who now lives in Japan has held exhibitions around the world, including Brussels, Strasbourg, Geneva, Paris, Frankfurt, Johannesburg as well as Kobe, Nagoya and Tokyo. Although not well known in this country the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and the V&A Museum in London all hold examples of his prints in their collections so he most certainly ranks amongst the foremost printmakers alive today.