Hitoshi Nakazato (1936-2010) was particularly active in the field of printmaking in the 1960s. He studied at the prestigious Tama University of the Arts in Tokyo in 1960, went to the United States in 1962 to continue his studies at the University of Wisconsin and at the University of Pennsylvania where, under the tutelage of Piero Dorazio, he drew inspiration from printmaking techniques and systems engineering to pursue abstract painting. “Why paint? “What would a painting that rejected conventional concepts of painting look like?”. Nakazato had “a burning desire to paint” but “no interest in pictorial conventions”.

He sought to redefine the act of making by introducing into the painting process elements that were born of Japanese industry and architecture and were essential to them, such as the sumitsubo, a Japanese line marking tool. His characteristic monochromatic works of 1968-1971 are composed entirely of straight lines and were the starting point for the development of his practice. The use of colour “beyond the lines” would make a “comeback” in the mid-1970s.