Heading: (Radical art – Japanese-American)
Author:
Title: Portfolio of 15 left-wing Japanese Woodcuts, 1952
Place Published: New York
Publisher:
Date Published: 1952
Description:

15 Japanese Woodcuts / Produced by 9 members of the Japanese Council to Promote Graphic Arts (Nisei Progressives, NY, 1952) 8.5 x 14". Unbound as issued, in printed paper portfolio with front-cover color woodcut pasted on. Title page + (despite the title) 16 full-page black-and-white woodcuts. The copyright page calls for an Introduction by Charles Keller, which is not present, the 16th plate apparently being added instead. Rare, WorldCat locating only four institutional copies in the US.

The woodcuts, from a Tokyo exhibition of left-wing Japanese artists, have social themes such as a coal mine strike, May Day parade, oppressed farmers and workers.The Nisei Progressives who distributed this portfolio in the United States were young California Japanese-American "radicals", affiliated with left-wing labor unions, who supported Henry Wallace's 1948 Progressive Party campaign for the Presidency.

Very good.