b'became important in his later work. 45This was also the first instance where helater remarked that his father dropped dead of shock (perhaps) when I began openly rebelled against artistic authority figures, signaling a new confidence inteaching at University. 48This quote underscores Makuuchis sense that the and commitment to his own vision. He remained in the Philadelphia area forpersonal and professional feedback he received was consistently negative. the next year, working as a substitute elementary school teacher, and in 1967 he returned to Iowa to be closer to his son. There he cobbled together employmentMakuuchis tenure at the university ended in 1972 because of his involvement at Kirkwood Community College and Anamosa Penitentiary, teaching in bothin an aborted faculty movement to oust the Dean, George Condon. A February the rehabilitation and continuing education departments in addition to working in25 article in The Janesville Gazette mentions A movement by two militant faculty the student information and graphic design offices.members that was barely averted by split faculty vote. Throughout the con-troversy, Chancellor Lorentz Adolfson and the university system backed Condon, Makuuchis exhibition record in his early career was spotty. Most of his exhibitionsignoring calls for his dismissal. In the article, Adolfson was quoted as saying were one-person shows, either as an extension of his academic work or in localThere was a rather strong disagreement between Dean Condon and one or two galleries where he was living. An invitation to his 1967 show at Houston Hall atfaculty members. They were able to stir things up and enlist enough faculty to the University of Pennsylvania states his preference for one-man showings ascall for a meeting. This statement, and most of the press coverage, showed a the reason that Munio is not in any museums and has no record of any compet- distinct lack of support for the dissenting faculty. In May, The Capital Times identi-itive prizes. 46While this might be accurate, it is also likely that Makuuchis workfied Dr. Philip Kutzko as the faculty member who initiated the vote, and Makuuchi was underappreciated because it seemed to run counter to prevailing aestheticsas the person who seconded it. Kutzko left Janesville for a position at Princeton, and working methods. In the early 1960s, there were significant changes hap- and Makuuchi later remarked: Like a proud samurai, I walked out of Janesville pening in the production and exhibition of prints. The so-called American Printinto the welfare sunset. 49Renaissance was heralded by the establishment of professional publishers, such as Universal Limited Art Editions on Long Island and Crown Point Press inRemaining in the University of Wisconsin system, Makuuchi enrolled as a San Francisco, designed to support the production of graphic work by artistsgraduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in September 1972. unfamiliar with the techniques of printmaking. These operations, which quicklyThe art department at Wisconsin had an unusually strong and deep grounding proliferated through the decade, created a new demand for large, highly technicalin printmaking, as well as a long history of innovation, experimentation, and color prints by well-known artists. Concurrently, the Tamarind Lithographycross-media practice. It is clear that the openness of the department, as well Workshop was established in 1960 by artist June Wayne, specifically to train aas the freedom to focus on making work as opposed to teaching, allowed generation of master printers in lithography. These trends within printmakingMakuuchi to push the boundaries of his imagery. The Madison works are charac-began to move focus away from the production of artist-printmakers. Theterized by an increasingly assured and particularly delicate approach to line and ascendency of Pop Art, which was more concerned with an examination oftexture. This was a period of great growth and refinement of Makuuchis work. surface culture rather than individual psychology, would also undercut public interest in the type of work Makuuchi was producing.Aesthetically, Makuuchis work in the early 1970s was marked by a spareness of line and a distinct use of white space. In his MFA thesis (1975), Makuuchi linked this to a preoccupation with light, which he called the container (media and w i sco n s i n medium) of all the various expressions of energy. 50This sense of energetic ten-In 1968 Makuuchi was hired to inaugurate an art department for the Universitysion is captured in works such as Untitled (Bone and Skull), a drypoint from about of Wisconsin Rock County in Janesville, one of thirteen two-year programs in197173 (fig. 19). Here Makuuchi uses deep, clean lines to define and shape form, the University of Wisconsin system. This was Makuuchis first full-time post- as can be seen in the swelling outline of the female figure and bone on the left secondary teaching position, and he seemed to flourish professionally, participat- side of the composition. This was accomplished by scraping the burr off his ing in local exhibitions and teaching extension courses. Nevertheless, Makuuchidrypoint lines to approximate the sharpness of an engraved line, yet retaining later wrote that universities felt pressuredpushed to hire minorities, and thatthe flexibility of the drypoint medium. These clean areas set off the heavy, rich there was little institutional support for him and his work. 47In the midst of thisblack areas on the right, where a skull and hand emerge from the dark upper relatively stable time in Makuuchis life, John Takahashi died, in 1970. Makuuchiright corner. It was during this time that Makuuchi began to modify his drypoint 36 37'