by Ukiyoe art works
There is an exciting exhibition in town: Ukiyoe Spectacular – Japanese Woodblock Prints from the 1800s
Over one hundred woodblock prints from a private collection in Japan are on display at the West Vancouver Museum and at the Nikkei National Museum in Burnaby. There are works by such masters as Kuniyoshi, Yosifuji and Hiroshige and more, with images of supernatural and epic myths, samurai, historical and theatrical events and even humour. Read more and view the slide shows at each museum’s site.
Ukiyo-e means “pictures of floating world”, referring to the lifestyles of the period, as well as becoming the name for the method of woodblock printing. This art came to influence European artists in the late 19th century and even today’s popular manga art in Japan.
We visited the West Vancouver Museum’s installation a while ago and found all the work quite fascinating and absorbing to view the amazing workmanship and fine details. Some amusing work even made me think of ‘Where’s Waldo?’, heh. We hope to visit the Nikkei Museum soon to see more.
More reading: about Ukiyo-e in Wikipedia, and about
a demonstration of this technique as adapted to contemporary work.
February 17, 2014 in Art Exhibitions, Printmaking by Marja-Leena
One of the few regrets I have about living here rather than in a large city is not being able to visit major exhibitions like these. I love Ukiyo-e and would be delighted to see some of the prints in reality.
It would be interesting to learn the technique even though I still bear a scar from the time I tried cutting a matte using my finger as a guide.
Susan, it is all relative for I tend to feel the same when I hear of great exhibitions in London, Paris, New York and so on! Yet I don’t even get to all the shows in Vancouver.
The Ukiyo-e technique is a good one for artists who don’t have a press. I admire the technique but so far have not been inspired to try it because it doesn’t suit my ‘style’ at this point. And yes, one has to use very sharp tools – I’ve done some woodcuts and linocuts long ago so I know the dangers! I think I’ve seen some artists wrap leather around their fingers for protection.
Oh. I want to go! That looks wonderful.
Marly, just come on up and I’ll take you!
Whee!
Those are lovely things.
Hattie, I think you would really enjoy seeing these.
Hawaii has a very large Japanese population as I recall reading, so now I wonder if some of them are familiar with this work.
They are amazing things, very varied and full of life and often pretty grotesque. One of my favourites was the one of the gods ‘raking in the treasure’ with the rats carrying radishes! Difficult really to know what to make of them with so little knowledge of the culture they came from, to me they seems rather incomprehensible and bizarre, yet they go against many of the preconceptions I have about Japanese culture, and are certainly intriguing. And yes, it would be good to be able to get to more such exhibitions.
Lucy, you are right about all you say. Many of us in the west did not know much about the Japanese culture in the 1800’s until it opened up much later and the prints were seen in the west. Of course, some of these show much of the court and upper class life, the Ukiyo-e. Yet there were playful examples of works for children too.
Fascinating! I’m lucky here in the Midwest with the Japanese car companies in the area because exhibits do appear every now and then. But we haven’t had a full-blown Ukiyo-e exhibit here yet. I tend to prefer the ones with muted colours. Although I am awed by the way the kimono are captured in all their beautiful detail.
Rouchswalwe, of course you would have a special appreciation for Japanese art works, having lived in that country for a while! I hope you will see one of these Ukiy-e exhibits some day! As a printmaker myself, it was expecially relevant and inspiring to see.