Haiga Portfolio

1966–67

Haiga Portfolio, 1966–67. Stanton Macdonald-Wright (American, 1890–1973), printed by Clifton Karhu (American, 1927–2007). Portfolio of 20 color woodcut prints housed in Japanese style wooden box; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Estate of Stanton and Jean Macdonald-Wright 2021.152 Modernist painter Stanton Macdonald-Wright developed the Haiga Portfolio out of his admiration for haiga, the traditional art of haiku illustration. Produced in Japan using a traditional Japanese printmaking technique (ukiyo-e), the artist challenged the typically minimalist, black-and-white approach to haiku illustration. While many of the works in the portfolio employ the lively colors and patterns of Synchromism—an art movement MacDonald-Wright founded in 1910 seeking to apply color theory to music and rhythm—others are more contemplative, while still retaining a connection to abstract modernist optics. The artist wrote of the works in this portfolio: “I have attempted to pictorialize these haiku psychologically and thus complete the verses by making the illustrations as modern as the verses will always remain.”