Edutainment > Kabuki Prints by Paul Binnie - born 1967

Ichikawa Danjuro in Shibaraku, 1996
copyright Paul Binnie, born 1967

While Paul Binnie lived in Tokyo from 1993-98, he produced a series of woodblock prints of the kabuki theater. The series has been the beginning of an international career as a respected 'Japanese' printmaker.

Paul Binnie was born in Alloa, Scotland in 1967 and studied fine art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with an M.A. (Hons) in 1990.  He lived in Paris from 1990 to early 1993, working both as a professional artist and as a teacher of art at the Ecole du Louvre and the Atelier Hourde.  His growing interest in Japanese woodblock prints led him to travel to Tokyo in 1993, where he lived for over five and a half years learning the business of woodblock design, cutting and printing.

Most of his woodblocks of this period are of Kabuki, which became one of his great passions, and he also embarked on a series of paintings in oil of the Noh theater - Binnie lived in Sendagaya in Tokyo, a few streets from the National Noh Theater.

Back in Britain, his connection with the theater continued with an Artistic Residency at the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "King Lear" from October 1999 to February 2000. Recent work has included a new series of paintings and woodblock prints of clouds and commissioned portraiture for a number of private clients.

Paul Binnie has exhibited widely in such places as Tokyo, Paris, New York, London, Hong Kong, Sweden, Scotland and the Netherlands. You find his web site at www.paulbinnie.co.uk.

In late 2002 Paul started an ambitious project, a series of 100 Views of Japan. By April 2003, the first two designs have been made available:

• Mount Fuji
• The Torii of Miyajima

Paul wrote two articles about the Japanese theater for artelino.

• Kabuki Theater
• Noh Theater

The images on this web site are the property of the artist(s) and or the artelino GmbH and/or a third company/institution.  Reproduction, public display and any commercial use of these images, in whole or in part, require the expressed written consent of the artist(s) and/or the artelino GmbH. .