Rich and evocative paintings from an underrecognized Japanese American abstractionistA New York Times 'Best Art Books of 2023' pick.
The result of several years of research, Heart of Hearts is the first book dedicated to the life and work of Japanese American artist Miyoko Ito.
Ito was born in Berkeley, California to parents of Japanese descent and educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied
watercolor. A month before her graduation, in 1942, Ito was sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center, an internment camp south of San Francisco.
Released several years before her husband, she transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but never graduated.
Unlike the other “Allusive Abstractionists” with whom Ito was loosely associated, her geometric compositions often evoke landscapes, interiors
and the human body. Irregular forms are rendered in layers of paint applied horizontally, creating an ombré effect reminiscent of a sun
over the horizon. Working on one canvas at a time, her technical precision was reflected in her slow working process, painting in her studio
from sunrise to sunset, often seven days a week. “I have no place to take myself except painting,” she confided in a 1978 interview,
“it has been my biggest life-giving force.”
While Ito’s paintings have recently been the subject of critically acclaimed exhibitions at Matthew Marks Gallery, Artists Space and the
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, her elegant and mysterious abstractions were and are scarcely known beyond Chicago,
where she spent much of her adult life and made a career. Assembled by Pre-Echo Press and Jordan Stein—curator of Ito’s first two solo
institutional exhibitions in nearly 40 years—Heart of Hearts features over 100 full-color plates, archival materials, a 1978 interview with the artist
and a 5,000-word biographical essay that contextualizes Ito’s practice and aims to afford the artist her proper place within a history of
postwar American art.
Founded in Tokyo in 2010, twelvebooks is a distributor specializing in art books.
As the exclusive Japanese representative for selected international publishers, twelvebooks manages the distribution
and promotion of their publications with a vision of making art books more widely accessible.
twelvebooks is also involved in various art book initiatives, including organizing the TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR.
In November 2024, twelvebooks opened SKWAT/twelvebooks in Nishikameari, Katsushika, a space that offers public access to its storage warehouse.
《Heart of Hearts》——一位被忽視的日裔美籍抽象畫家，豐富而引人共鳴的繪畫作品集入選《紐約時報》2023年「最佳藝術書籍」。
歷經數年研究，《Heart of Hearts》是第一本專門介紹日裔美國藝術家伊藤美代子（Miyoko Ito）生平與作品的專書。
伊藤出生於加州柏克萊，父母為日本移民，在加州大學柏克萊分校修習水彩畫。1942年，也就是她畢業前一個月，她被強制送往位於舊金山南部
的日裔拘留營——Tanforan 集合中心。她在丈夫獲釋前數年就被釋放，並轉入芝加哥藝術學院（School of the Art Institute of Chicago）就讀，
但未完成學業。
與她所隸屬的「隱喻抽象派（Allusive Abstractionists）」的其他藝術家不同，伊藤的幾何構圖經常帶有風景、室內空間與人體的暗示。
她以層層堆疊的橫向筆觸描繪不規則的形狀，營造出漸層的色彩效果，令人聯想到地平線上的太陽。她一次只專注於一幅畫作，從日出到日落每日作畫，
往往一週七天無休，她的精細筆觸正體現出這種緩慢而專注的創作節奏。她在 1978 年的一次訪談中坦言：「除了繪畫，我沒有任何可以安放自己的地方，
那是我生命中最重要的原動力。」
雖然伊藤的作品近年來在 Matthew Marks 畫廊、Artists Space、柏克萊美術館暨太平洋電影檔案館舉辦的展覽均廣受好評，她那些優雅神秘的抽象畫作
仍少為芝加哥以外的藝術界所熟知。她幾乎整個成年人生涯都在芝加哥度過，也是在那裡發展出穩定的創作生涯。
本書由 Pre-Echo Press 和策展人喬丹・斯坦（Jordan Stein）共同編輯，後者曾策畫伊藤四十年來首兩場機構個展。《Heart of Hearts》收錄超過 100 幅
彩色作品圖版、珍貴檔案資料、1978 年的藝術家訪談，及一篇長達 5,000 字的傳記性論文，深入探討伊藤的藝術實踐，並為她在戰後美國藝術史上
爭取應有的位置。
平裝
460 頁
241 x 292 mm
2,500 冊
2023 初版
ISBN: 9798889929499
PRE-ECHO 出版
成立於 2010 年東京，是一家專門經銷藝術書籍的發行商。
作為多家國際出版社在日本的獨家代表，twelvebooks 負責其出版品的流通與推廣，致力於讓藝術書籍更普及、更易取得。
此外，twelvebooks 也積極參與各種藝術書相關計畫，包括舉辦 TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR（東京藝術書展）。
2024 年 11 月，twelvebooks 在葛飾區西龜有里設立了 SKWAT/twelvebooks 空間，開放倉庫供大眾參觀使用。
