Ikki Matsumoto (1935 – 2013)

Ikki Matsumoto is the son of the artist we featured yesterday, Katsuji Matsumoto.  Ikki travelled to the United States to study at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana, where his older brother was a sculpture student. He transferred to the Art Academy of Cincinnati to study under the renowned wildlife artist, Charles Harper.  After an unsatisfying work in the advertising field, he established a new career as a painter and printmaker using the native birds as his subjects. Matsumoto intended for his work to make people feel good as he said, ‘there are no heavy messages in my work, I just simply wish to delight’.

More of his art can be viewed here on his posthumous website.

Images:  Courtesy of various sources.

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