Michael Knigin (American, 1942-2011) - Woman Playi

Updated September 18, 2026

Lot number	194
Estimate	50.00 - 75.00 USD
Auction	October Art & Collectibles- 2-DAY Auction
Date	October 4, 2026 at 11:00 PM EDT
Auction house	Oakwood Auctions
Location	Stouffville

A commanding large-format color screenprint by American artist and master printmaker Michael Knigin (1942-2011), “Woman Playing a Poppin (After Utamaro),” 1981, signed and dated “Knigin ’81” in pencil at lower right, titled and numbered 91/225 in pencil at lower left. Measuring an impressive 34 x 26 inches overall, the work is a particularly characteristic example of Knigin’s celebrated dialogue between historic Japanese ukiyo-e imagery and the visual culture of twentieth-century New York. At the center of the composition is an elegant bijin, or “beautiful woman,” derived from the imagery of Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c.1753-1806), one of the supreme masters of Edo-period ukiyo-e and particularly renowned for his psychologically refined portrayals of fashionable women. Knigin monumentalizes the figure against a sharply contrasting black-and-white Manhattan architectural streetscape, transforming an image rooted in eighteenth-century Japan into an unmistakably modern urban statement. Her elaborate red-and-white checkerboard kimono, floral motifs, ornamental hair arrangement and areas of green, blue and gold provide saturated passages of color against the photographic grayscale city, producing the striking collision of East and West, antiquity and modernity, handmade print tradition and contemporary image culture for which Knigin’s Japanese-inspired works are especially recognizable. Knigin’s approach places the work at a compelling intersection of American postwar printmaking, Pop-inflected appropriation, photography, collage and Japonisme. Rather than merely reproducing an historic Japanese image, he relocates it into the architectural canyons of contemporary New York, creating a sophisticated cultural and temporal juxtaposition that gives the composition much of its visual authority. The resulting image has immediate decorative impact while also rewarding collectors interested in the continuing influence of Japanese woodblock art upon twentieth-century Western artists. Knigin was formally trained at the Tyler School of Art and received a Ford Foundation grant to study lithography at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop. He subsequently taught at the Pratt Graphic Center and became closely involved with professional print production in New York, including his work with Chiron Press. His career therefore places these works firmly within the technically sophisticated environment of postwar American printmaking rather than the realm of purely decorative reproduction. The identification of the present composition is confirmed by published examples of “Woman Playing a Poppin (After Utamaro),” which record the work as a 1981 screenprint from an edition of 225 with an overall sheet size of 34 x 26 inches. The present example is numbered 91/225. Medium: Color screenprint / serigraph on paper. Signature and inscriptions: Signed and dated “Knigin ’81” in pencil lower right; numbered 91/225, titled “Woman Playing a Po

Michael Knigin (American, 1942-2011) - Woman Playi

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