Original Itsuo Karatani ‘Massachusetts State House’ Boston Architecture Painting

This is just a great original piece. This is one of those pieces I was very excited to purchase. It is one of those paintings I am happy it is in my collection until it sells. Itsua kiritani is a japanese artist who also works in boston and his works are in museums and very rarely come to market. For those not familiar with the artist, I have included his biography below. This is a very rare example of his boston work. A wonderful watercolor and gouache on paper with the image measuring 17 3/4 x 26 3/4 inches. Signed in english and japanese with the chop mark lower right. Painting is in outstanding as painted condition. Really clean and vibrant. Archival matte and silver frame are complimentary and ready to hang. Really a stunning rare work by important 20th century artist. Frame measures 24 1/4 x 33 1/4 inches.

For those not familiar with the artist his biography from a gallery that sells the artist’s work reads: “Itsuo Kiritani, an accomplished Japanese artist who now splits his time between Boston and Tokyo, is well known for his pen and ink sketches as well as his larger scale paintings. In his words “Traditional wooden houses are disappearing one after another from the Tokyo landscape. I realized this more than 30 years ago when I moved to Yanaka, one of the old areas of Tokyo known as shitamachi. As native of Tokyo, I had long witnessed the city changing through its policy of ‘modernization’. A sense of impending crisis came to me, however, when I realized that some changes were not simply visual but actually destroying the Japanese sense of community. This prompted me to sketch and paint the distinctive housing, the streets, and the lives of people living throughout the whole of Tokyo. The aim was not merely to record, but to show how rich and beautiful the lifestyle of these areas is and was. I want others to realize that such a connected lifestyle is especially important in today’s modern world.”