wood block prints

Artist Spotlight…58th CWAJ Print Show

For the first time in 9 years I won’t actually be at the College Women’s Association of Japan‘s annual Print Show although I was the Assistant Co-chair for the show until my departure in June. Perhaps because of this I think it is simply the best show in years and for anyone in the Tokyo and Kobe regions, should not be missed. Featuring 188 original prints (hanga), including 34 by debut artists, the show opens in Tokyo on October 10th and runs until the 12th at The Tokyo American Club. The show then moves the following weekend October 18-20th to The Kobe Club for the 3rd time in its 58 year history. Both events are free and open to the public. Tokyo American Club members can also attend a preview and sale for club members only on October 9th, from 8–9 pm. Showcasing the incredible technique and artistry of Japanese printmakers from 20 some years of age to 100 years of age, with the full range of printmaking techniques on display, from traditional woodblock to intaglio to silkscreen, it is a tour de force. Works on paper continue to be one of the most affordable and interesting areas of the art world and all the revenue from sales goes to support the CWAJ Scholarship program and other charitable projects. So you can feel good while buying yourself a treat! If you are new to Japanese prints, I recommend reading my Hanga 101 post for a crash course in Japanese art history and it is always fun to peruse the past years’ shows, links to which can be found at the end of this post.

Everything starts off with a bang as YAMAMOTO Keisuke, an artist I have been championing since co-curating his work in the 2007 Associate Show has the honor of the catalogue cover this year. In my past posts on prior Print Shows, I have highlighted his masterful command of the lithographic process, both in his austere interior chair prints and his romantic views of Japanese temples. His new print Sasanqua Blossoms, shown above, is a departure as it adds a sense of the fantastic – the surreal – to his previously more literal landscape work. It also has a greater subtle meaning; “The red camellias blooming under the snow convey the beauty and strength of life, which emerges and flourishes even in the harshest conditions. This is how we feel about the disaster in Tohoku and the people there. We saw it as a tribute,” said this year’s Print Show co-chairs.

Making beauty from pain is not limited to Yamamoto’s print. SEKHINO Yowsaku’s amazing Beyond the Big Wave looks at first to be an homage to Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Yet as you look closely you can see all the smashed cars at the water’s edge and the realization of which great wave you are looking at sets in. Up in Tohoku there are still places with hundreds of mangled cars piled along the shoreline. This deeply evocative print is not well served by the photo and needs to be seen in person as the gold leaf and detailing is extraordinary.

The relationship between modern Japanese prints and the print makers who came before is a strong theme this year as is the reciprocal influence relationship with the Impressionists. KAWACHI Seiko’s Frame of Nature (Sunflowers) is another draw-dropping woodcut that refers back to both the Hokusai wave print and Vincent Van Gogh. It is not a coincidence that he chose to illustrate sunflowers in a vase decorated with an ukiyo-e icon.

MORIMURA Ray’s Plum Trees in Tenjin Shrine also harks back to similar masterworks…

…again to Van Gogh and this time, Hiroshige.

A more modern take on the same idea comes from ANDO Shinji’s Feeling the Breeze (Spring). Ando is a master at creating botanical etchings so real you think you could reach out and pick them.

MAKI, Kin-ichi has been making mixed media prints featuring that staple of Japanese roadways, the curved mirror. In real life it allows you to see oncoming traffic from hidden directions. In Maki’s Timeslip (Palanquin) it allows for two different viewpoints, in this case looking ahead to the future or back to the past. Again, we have a reflection on the printmakers of the past, as in this case the image in the mirror is from one of Hiroshige’s 53 Views of Tokaido. Like a parody, Maki offers an amusing but serious criticism of this busy and complicated age. His message is also mirrored in his technique as he uses an unusual combination of traditional woodblock with modern digital prints. The woodblock provides soft color and depth, while the digital prints allows for photographic detail as well as added freely drawn shapes.

For the monochrome loves out there – of which I have become one over the years – there is much to choose from this year in every possible medium and style. HASEGAWA Yuki’s BLACK TEMPERATURE PA.01 is a stunning modern lithograph with an organic layering to its starkness. For anyone having a Franz Kline hankering, this is the print for you.

SAKUTA Tomiyuki ‘s witty Bjorn & Kiki is on one hand reminiscent of 18th century scientific studies of coral and on the other a play on horror faces. I just love that the images have jaunty names .

Also not to be missed is the moody story inducing a moment -11-8 by SUZUKI Tomoe. I love prints that make you wonder what is about to happen…

For those looking for something quintessentially Japanese in subject, the memory prints this year are great, running with both old and new architectural icons – Tokyo Tower in MATSUMURA Seiichi’s Snowdome I and the new Sky Tree in NISHIMURA Fumiko’s Moon Light.

There are many great kitchen prints, as I like to call them, but the prize goes to the pop-art like Sea Urchin from newly selected artist MIYAMOTO Shoji.

My absolute favorite piece, which also gets the title for “photo does not even begin to do the work justice” is by SEO Takako called –Kuh–No 47. The woodcut has been printed on both sides with water and oil based inks. It’s aggressive but soft, linear but whimsical, with a collage-like nature. I know just where I would love to hang this big beauty.

This year is also special in that it marks the 100th birthday of the doyenne of the Japanese hanga world – SHINODA Toko – and in celebration, a special exhibition of 16 prints produced over the past two decades are available for sale. I cannot choose a favorite and you cannot go wrong with any of them but in the end I succumbed to The Return, perhaps because the title is wishful thinking on my part and also for the unusual use of green in lieu of her signature red.

On the Young Printmaker Award front I could not be more excited to see the return of 2010 winner KIM Kyung Sun, who continues to make dramatic textural woodcuts of “such natural elements as a scent of grass, the sound of rain and the touch of wind.” Her Brief moment of Consolation 10.14 offers up a “a brief moment of healing and hope.” That seems to me to be the underlying theme of the entire print show this year.

I honestly could post about almost every single print featured and I am very sad not to be there. For those of you who are going, I’d love to hear about what you liked and what you didn’t and any and all purchases made! And be sure to stay tuned tomorrow as I am doing an additional Print Show post, focussing on buying art for kids.

Interested in working on the Print Show? Join CWAJ and get started. Volunteers are needed for returning day in November and that will give you a chance to actually touch and see the work close up.

Oct 8, 2013 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight 9 Comments Tags: CWAJ Print Show, hanga, Japanese art, japanese prints, wood block prints

Artist Spotligtht…57th CWAJ Print Show

So once again it is that time of year. Starting on Friday, October 19th and running through the weekend, the College Women’s Association of Japan‘s annual exhibition and sale of modern Japanese hanga is on at the Tokyo American Club. Admission is free and open to everyone. Tokyo American Club members can also attend a pre-sale on Thursday night from 8-9 pm. Whether you go every year or this is your first time, I recommend that you do not miss this show. It is a chance to view and purchase top quality original art, whether you are looking for a souvenir of time in Japan, are a serious art collector or are simply tired of looking at your bare white walls. If you are not familiar with the history of Japanese printmaking I recommend that you read my Hanga 101 primer for history and context.

Featuring 201 prints by 200 artists, including the foremost printmakers in the field as well as 42 debut artists, the show gives viewers a real taste of the breadth of print work being created today. The prints span the full range of different printmaking techniques, from traditional woodblock to intaglio to silkscreen, as well as variety of subject matter. This year a newcomer to the show graces the cover, which is a rare event and it inspired me to highlight prints by artists appearing for the first time this year. Some are young, recent graduates of Japanese art programs, while many others have been working in their medium for sometime and have only recently applied and/or been admitted to the show, which is the case for YOSHIDA Hideshi and his dramatic cover print, The Strength to Destroy This Restraint. Reading like a mini sci-fi story, Yoshida has been conceptualizing this image since his 1993 reading of a story about an angel trapped in a hypercubic prison in The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality. The angel, turned into a sort of super hero/power ranger, escapes, symbolic of Yoshida’s emergence from an artistic slump. Having the prestige of the cover image would confirm that.

IWAKIRI Yuko describes her woodcut The Quartette very melodically: “As I was drawing the rows of trees of a virgin forest, I came to see a five-line staff score and it seemed to me like the cold autumnal wind which blew through it was playing a harmony…From oppressing low-pitched bass to sharp high-pitched notes that gradually vanish, and the sound of a bow scraping against the strings to a dry pizzicato – I described a field of the weaving sounds of the four string instruments.” Iwakiri uses 15-16 layers of water-based ink to produce a soft toned but dense image. She compares it to “drawing and painting with plates rather than just pulling out prints.”

TOHIGUCHI Toru’s silkscreen entitled Jaguchi is a bit of a mystery to the English language viewer. What do you see? I saw a face, until I translated the title, which means faucet in Japanese. A witty take on the art of the everyday, don’t you think?

Born in 1932, INOUE Katsue may be the oldest and most famous of this year’s printmakers to have a debut at the CWAJ Print Show this year. Her deceptively simple black and white woodcuts depicting flowing grasses and blowing flowers are both intensely graphic through their contrast of negative and positive space and atmospheric in a Georgia O’Keeffe way. Personally, I like her Flower in Wind poppy print because it would look good hung anywhere, with anything else, while keeping its own integrity. Practicality shouldn’t really figure in to art purchases, but sometimes its hard not to consider it. I think this one makes a lovely gift too.

A really sweet print is SOMEYA Mayumi’s Greeting Summer Solstice and her description of her working process corresponds with her imagery. “Block print is sometimes called blind work: You can’t visualize the result of your work until you see the final print. I always throb with excitement when I carefully turn over the final copy. You see, the paper comes out from under the plate which itself comes out through the press machine — all mysteriously and nonintuitively removed from the appearance of the final product. Whenever the result exceeded my expectations, I felt like joining hands with someone, anyone, and setting off on a journey somewhere far away. Now, that’s celebration! I work alone, yet I often feel as if I were collaborating with others, and then my atelier feels lively.”

The bargain print of the show is KAMATA Yuki’s small world lithograph with its subtle coloration and abstract photographic quality.

Numerous artists have layered in political and environmental thought to their works this year in response to the Great Japan Earthquake and the subsequent nuclear crisis. Amongst them are TAGO Hiroshi’s Murmuring Planet, a mezzotint on gampi paper with a drowning Earth in an upside down glass…

…and JUNG Il’s The Property of the Earth, a classic woodcut which looks almost computer pixellated yet has a very thick painting like texture. The whimsical nature of the print enforces his message that we need to cohabit our wonderful planet in harmony.

The souvenir print for those living in Asia has to be ARAI Keiko’s Temple of Daybreak as it has scenes of Angkor Wat and India all tied up in a glowing morning scene.

And for sheer decorative power take a look at lithographs from UENO Tomoko Time Plant…

…and SAKAI Junji Lluna de febrer ’12-I. Both are very painterly – Ueno’s has such a sense of brush stroke and Sakai is masterly at color block work.

And again this year, the Young Printmaker Award winner is an absolute stunner! TAKEUCHI Hidemi’s Harvest Day quadtych touches on themes of time and life, representing “the day of fruition, the day of accomplishment honoring time well spent.” It certainly looks like a successful harvest – in more ways than one!

All of these new CWAJ Print Show participants join a historic event that has taken placed uninterrupted since its inception in 1956. CWAJ volunteer members have worked tirelessly through the decades to produce one of the most prestigious hanga shows, using the proceeds to fund their respected scholarship program.

And as an additional incentive to get you out to the show, a few little birdies have told me there is a special surprise this year – an opportunity not to be missed – so I am looking forward to seeing you there! I’ll be working as a docent most of Friday and intermittently through the weekend. Please stop by and say hello.

Oct 15, 2012 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight 6 Comments Tags: CWAJ Print Show, Japanese art, japanese prints, wood block printing, wood block prints

Artist Spotlight…56th CWAJ Print Show

So once again it is that time of year. Starting on Friday, October 14th and running through the weekend, the College Women’s Association of Japan‘s annual exhibition and sale of modern Japanese hanga is on at the Tokyo American Club. Admission is free and open to everyone and the prints themselves are as varied and well-priced as they always are. Whether you go every year or this is your first time, I recommend that you do not miss this show. It is a chance to view and purchase top quality original art, whether you are looking for a souvenir of time in Japan, are a serious art collector or are simply tired of looking at your bare white walls. I am going to highlight a few pieces from the show in this post, but if you are not familiar with the history of Japanese printmaking I recommend that you read my Hanga 101 primer first.

The cover print shown above, Evening Snow on Mt. Hira, is by master printmaker KUROSAKI Akira (it is a standard device to put the last name first in capital letters), whose print last year was also on my top list and sold out completely. Kurosaki is working on a series called “Eight Views of Omi,” a title reference to the early ukiyo-e series by Ando Hiroshige. I continue to think they are his best prints in years and that by looking backwards, he is actually moving forwards.

Another artist moving forward by looking backward is URATANI Hiroto with his (Face I <Hill Form>). After years of similar looking prints – colored and lined rolling fields – his entry this year builds on those hill forms by creating a face from them while also speaking to earlier 20th century printmakers and even, to my mind, Modigliani.

I am never normally an animal print lover, but the charm and fun of IMAI Yosuke’s Braid has really caught my attention this year. I know you dog aficionados are going to like this one.

And KIM Sohee must have the funniest sense of humor of any of the artists in the show. Her inaugural entry last year made the catalog cover and left everyone smiling. This year’s print is hysterical and inventive again.

For sheer prettiness, I think there is a tie between MATSUSHIMA Junko’s Spring Scent No. 3 and…

…OKAWA Miyuki’s A Life, and A Life over Lives.

Nostalgic Japan prints, while lovely, don’t always push the artistic envelope. This year, NORIKANE Hiroto’s Big Roof-2 (Autumn) is so visually arresting in the way the roof dominates the space that I have to change that opinion.

Traditional CWAJ Print Show rules require submitted prints to be from the current year or one prior. New changes in these rules have allowed invited artists (as opposed to those prints selected by jury) to submit older work. For example, in this NAKAYAMA Tadashi Wind/Girl from 1956, the youthful exuberance not only of the subject, but also of the artist, shines through.

The guaranteed sell out? YAMAMOTO Keisuke’s Kiyomizu Temple covered with snow. If possible, it may even be more beautiful that last year’s print, as well as smaller, with a dusky blue of twilight. Supposably, you cannot see the temple from this angle, so he is working entirely from his memory, not a photo. Make sure to enlarge this one by clicking it. Even the poor quality of the scan cannot hide the incredible quality and detail of his lithography technique.

The winner of best title goes to ZHUANG Man for her Outside Is All Buzzing of Cicadas, as I find the roar of late summer cicadas in Japan to be a romantic sign of our return after the summer, but I have also always admired her moody detailed mezzotints. I believe she was a dentist before she became an artist, so fine detail work comes easily to her. Part of what made me notice her print so strongly this year is that is sits on the page of the catalog right next to…

…my absolute favorite print in the show – YOSHIHARA Eri’s Mark Rothko’s chair. I have had a passion for Rothko’s work since college and am currently having a bit of a Thonet chair obsession. But even if you don’t, it is just such a witty print and the scan doesn’t do it justice. This is Yoshihara’s first year in the show and it reminds me that new artists are what interest me most and leads me to my next topic…

…the Young Printmaker Award. Once again, I must offer up a caveat as I co-chaired this committee with the lovely Akiko Tatsuke, but I am so excited by our winning artist and our returning artist.

HIROSE Risa, with her stunning collage of finely detailed wood engravings supplemented by rose petal ink, was the recipient of this year’s award. The photo of Document-A Taste of Impressions in the catalog is about the size of a postage stamp, and cannot do the 97 x 67cm print justice, even if enlarged here. In addition to her winning print, we have two smaller works for sale including this one shown below, The Time Before Morning is Over (which could also be in contention for best title). To really get a sense of her work and technique, please see Artist Spotlight…Rise Hirose’s Ephemeral Beauties.

Our returning YPA winner from 3 years ago is ISHIZAKI Miku who also has three extraordinary works in the show, printed on her signature handmade washi paper. They are gorgeously textural and warm.

Don’t miss the Associate Show in the downstairs Fred Harris Gallery either, an incredble retrospective of work by HAGIWARA Hideo, spanning some 50 years and including amazing prints from his Mt. Fuji series.

The CWAJ Print Show opens at 11am on Friday, October 14th until 8pm that evening. I’ll be there from opening until about 3pm working as a docent. I’m available to answer questions and give tours. The show continues 11am-6pm on Saturday and again from 11am-5pm on Sunday. There are so many more prints I could mention here, but unfortunately not room for them all. Catalogs are available for sale at the show if you would like to have a record of all the prints.

Interested in working on the Print Show? Join CWAJ and get started. Volunteers are needed for returning day in November and that will give you a chance to actually touch and see the work close up.

Image Credits: All images from the 56th CWAJ Print Show catalogue.

Oct 11, 2011 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight 3 Comments Tags: CWAJ Print Show, hanga, wood block prints, wood engraving, Young Printmaker Award

Artist Spotlight…Whistler, Hiroshige and the Best Coffee Table Book of All Time

Whistler Caprice In Purple And Gold No 2 The Golden Screen — Caprice in Purple and Gold No. 2 -The Golden Screen, James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1864

It doesn’t get better than this – Whistler’s mistress Joanna Hifferman in kimono, gazing at prints by Hiroshige, in front of a gilded scenic Japanese screen. Proving that Hiroshige’s work was not yet well-known in London when the painting was first exhibited, critics in 1865 didn’t understand what they were seeing – one referred to Joanna looking at “”a picture, drawing, fan or whatever it may be” – never even realizing she was looking at Japanese prints. It was just 10 years since the opening of Japan, five years since the first visit by Japanese to the West, yet the aesthetic influence of Japan had begun, coming to the West like an unstoppable steamroller. Japonisme was the term coined for this influence and considering the other posts I have in the hopper, it looks like it will be a common theme this month.

The painting itself is a commentary on these ukiyo-e prints, with its flattened point of view and the mimicking of a traditional pose. Whistler even designed a special frame, with kamon-like (Japanese family crests) decorations around the edge, to extend the Japonisme effect.

For a modern-day replication of this scene, go out and pick up a vintage kimono, but more importantly, this book – Hiroshige: 100 Views of Edo – by Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler. Measuring a huge 17 inches by 14 inches, it reminds me of the very funny Seinfeld episode when Kramer creates a coffee table book (about coffee tables) that has small fold out legs and is a coffee table. I think you could do that with this book. But this really is no ordinary coffee table book and the photos below do not begin to give a sense of how large and special it is! The outer binding is separate, covered in pink silk. The interior book pages also have a silky cover and look hand-stitched. It is held closed with two small toggles. The 120 images are reprints of an original set of woodblock prints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo. Each print has details and descriptions and it would be amazing to sit with a glass of wine and just absorb a few here and there.

The cover…

the interior…

and some sample pages.

It makes a perfect holiday gift for anyone interested in ukiyo-e, Japonisme or just beautiful books!!!! From a decorating point of view, this could be the lynchpin of a well styled coffee table.

Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen is one of the Whistler highlights (from among a collection of 1300) at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., along with the reconstructed Peacock Room and other paintings. A definite “bucket list” item.

The Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo in Omotesando runs an ever changing series of exhibits from their huge (12,000) collection of ukiyo-e.

Image credits: 1. Freer/Sackler Museum, 2-3. Barnes and Noble, 4-5. Taschen Books.

Dec 8, 2010 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Books, Movies & TV 2 Comments Tags: Hiroshige, Impressionism, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Japonisme, wood block prints

An Artistic Reflection…The 1860 Japanese Envoy to America and Yokohama-e

Shosha Amerikajin True Picture of Americans 1861 — Shosha Amerikajin (True Picture of Americans), c. 1861

Last week, The New York Times ran an article on the first visit by Japanese envoys to America in 1860. The article is part of a larger historical series on the Civil War, but what I found so interesting were the artistic renderings of their trip by the visitors and the gifts they brought with them to present to the President. This first diplomatic mission was led by three Japanese officials and completed by a retinue of 77 others (including 6 cooks). For President Buchanan, on the cusp of political crisis, the visit was a popular and welcome diversion and the visitors took the country by storm. Newspapers and the paparazzi of the day recorded every move, while the Japanese themselves also recorded their impressions and images of America.

Samurai in New York — Delegates and NY Lady, Stereoscope view, hand-colored, Studio of C.D. Fredricks & Co. Collection of Tom Burnett

The impressions of the Japanese were filtered through the lens of their experience. Drawn by a member of the Japanese delegation, one would think that this sketch of Washington D.C. was some pleasure garden or village back in Japan. Closer viewing reveals the Capitol, the base of the Washington Monument and the bridge across the Potomac to Virginia.

sketch of Washington DC 1860 by Japanese Envoy — sketch of Washington D.C., 1860

Repairs to the ship meant to carry them back to Japan were delayed and as a result, the delegation was treated to quite a tour, including a balloon ascension in Philadelphia. Clearly, it impressed them and they recorded it in great detail as shown in this woodblock print circa 1865.

The envoys brought many gifts from the Emperor of Japan as well. Most interesting to me is the lacquer chigai-dana (staggered shelf cabinet) that can be seen in the far right corner of the etching below (from an 1860 newspaper). It shows President Buchanan and his niece unwrapping all the gifts they received from the delegates.

The white house inventory shows this chigai-dana, which actually turns out to be a different one, gifted earlier to President Franklin Pierce by Commodore Perry when he returned from his fateful voyage in 1855.

Currently, it resides in the sitting room adjoining the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House. You can just see it in the left corner of this photo. It is believed that the 1860 chigai-dana is stored in the Smithsonian somewhere…

This small early 19th century lacquered and gilded shelf cabinet is currently for sale at Naga Antiques in New York.

And I recently saw a simple two shelf version heavily decorated with maki-e (sprinkled gilding) and fans at the Oedo Market at Tokyo International Forum.

Back in Japan, foreign traders were now allowed under the “Treaty of Friendship and Commerce”. They set up in the port city of Yokohama and were limited to a 25 mile radius. The foreigners were fascinating to the local population and a new form of ukiyo-e, called Yokohama-e, emerged. It depicted these strange new people and their dress, their weapons, their customs and so on. Earlier works, such as this 1855 print, were based on much speculation and little real information, and as such, the rendering of the faces and dress is clearly not that accurate.

Tagawa Hiromichi Appearance of Foreign Barbarians England — Tagawa Hiromichi, Appearance of Foreign Barbarians "England"

This print, from “A Series of the European Countries,” was made only 6 years later and also depicts an Englishman, but in this case both faces and dress reflect a fairly accurate view.

Utagawa Yoshikazu Englishman with A Dog 1861 — Utagawa Yoshikazu, Englishman with A Dog

While rarer and more expensive than ordinary ukiyo-e, these Yokohama prints can still be found in markets, antique stores and on-line. I saw this print on Sunday at the Tomioka Hachiman shrine sale. If you click to enlarge it you can see more easily the mixture of people and activities, including the American/European couple in red at the bottom towards the right. The combination of Western and Japanese style buildings next to each other is great too. Unfortunately I do not know the name of the print or the artist.

Back in my hometown of New York, the exhibition “Samurai in New York: The First Japanese Delegation 1860” has just closed at the Museum of the City of New York. It was one of a number of “Heritage of Friendship” events planned this year to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1860 visit. Currently running at the Yokosuka City Museum (in Japanese) is the sister exhibit “Japan and America in 19th Century-Technical Revolution and Diplomacy” . If you would like to read more in-depth information I recommend reading Guests of the Nation:The Japanese Delegation to the Buchanan White House by Dallas Finn on the White House Historical Association website. The Library of Congress also has an amazing collection on this topic. Other resources inlcude Ann Yonemura’s book Yokohama:Japanese Woodblock Prints from the 19th Century.

A Quick Addendum:
A few days after this post I stumbled across this ballon ascension print from the same series as the one shown above. It is missing its third panel, but is clearly by the same artist, Yoshitora Utagawa. Such a rare image in ukiyo-e! And you gotta love the inaccurate rendering of the U.S. Flag! This one is currently for sale at Okura Antiques.