A mysterious process involving waxed paper stencils, textured metal plates, silk-screen frame and squeegee was used to produce this remarkable group of prints, which bear little resem­blance to prints made by any of the well-known processes. subtle overlap­pings of waxy, transparent colors provide backgrounds for line renderings, in the Oriental tradition of understatement, of two poppies, a dish of plums, and a chrysanthemum.

It might be tempting for critics to call Fukui’s work precious or shallow. But one must beware of confusing pre­ciousness with delicacy, shallowness with simplicity. Fukui’s prints are tech­nically delicate, compositionally simple (uncluttered) and as such represent the logical culmination of the Japanese print tradition. In a time when most of his compatriot printmakers have lapsed into slick commercialism to pacify the Western print market, Fukui remains re­freshingly untouched.

—Virginia Allen