Matsubara, Naoko. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. Woodcut, before 1972. Edition, if any, unstated. Inscribed "Artist's Proof," titled and signed in pencil. 12 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches (image), 18 1/4 x 23 1/4 inches (sheet). In excellent condition. Matubara was born in Japan in 1937. She lived in Cambridge, MA. for some time prior to moving to Canada in 1972, where she still lives. The distinguished woodcut print artist Naoko Matsubara was born on Shikoku Island into an old Shinto family, and grew up in Kyoto, where her father was a senior priest. She was educated at the Kyoto Academy of Fine Art (BFA, 1960); and was a Fulbright Scholar at what is now Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (MFA, 1962). She was also a Special Invited Student at the Royal College of Art in London (1962). After travelling extensively in Europe and Asia, Naoko Matsubara returned to Japan for two years, before being lured back to the United States. There she worked as personal assistant to the late Prof. Fritz Eichenberg, and also taught at the Pratt Institute of Graphic Art in New York, as well as at the University of Rhode Island. Subsequently she lived in Cambridge, Mass. In 1972 Naoko Matsubara moved to Canada, and now lives in Oakville, Ontario. She has continued to be extremely active as an artist: locally, nationally and internationally. Since 1960 she has had some 75 solo exhibitions, in the USA, Canada, Japan, England, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Mexico. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. Public collections owning work by Naoko Matsubara include: Albertina, Vienna; Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum; Carnegie Institute; Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Cincinnati Art Museum; Detroit Institute of Art; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Haifa Museum, Israel; Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art; Royal Ontario Museum; The White House, Washington DC; Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art; Yale University Art Gallery. Naoko Matsubara has published some 20 books and portfolios of her work, including most recently Tibetan Sky (Calgary: Bayeux Arts Publishers, 1997; Preface by the Dalai Lama); Tokonoma (Bath, England: Old School Press, 1999); and Konjaku monogatari (Tokyo: ALIS, 2002). Her work also includes a large mural and donor pillar for the new YMCA building in
