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[Press Release] Expanding Horizons: Woodblock Prints from 1860 through 1912
The third installment of this anniversary program, "Expanding Horizons: Woodblock Prints from 1860 through 1912" explores an era of profound change for both the art form and Japan as a whole.
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Understanding Ukiyo-e Formats: Hashira-e & Kakemono
With their unusually long and narrow dimensions, the hashira-e and kakemono formats created compositional challenges, yet also immense potential in an artist's approach to the image. The format itself was freeing and unique, allowing for compositions that brimmed with the grace and emotion of artfully employed negative space and vertical dynamism.
Hashira-e: 18th Century Pillar Prints
The second half of the 18th century was the golden age of innovation in ukiyo-e. During this period, woodblock print artists experimented with a variety new techniques and sizes. In Hashira-e: 18th Century Pillar Prints, Ronin Gallery considers the enormous versatility and groundbreaking innovation of the artists working in the hashira-e format during the golden age.
Kacho-e: Masterpieces of Birds, Flowers, and Insects
The specific tradition of kacho-e, which is most simply the depiction of flora and fauna, has a long visual and literary history. Imbued with metaphorical significance beyond their physical beauty, specific pairings of birds, flowers, and insects have formed the basis for a tradition that extends into the contemporary moment.
Advancements in Japanese Photography from the Edo Period
Photography first arrived in Japan during the Edo period when Dutch merchants inhabited Nagasaki Bay. Many early Japanese photographers went to study in Nagasaki and in 1854 Kawamoto Komin published Ensei-Kikijutsu, the first book in Japanese about photographic techniques.
Van Gogh & Hiroshige's Unspoken Collaboration
In Van Gogh's 1887 painting The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige's Ohashi Bridge) we are given a unique look inside the mind of one of the world's great artistic geniuses. By viewing this painting that is both uniquely his and also one of the most outwardly influenced works in his portfolio (he literally copied verbatim, although his own vehement style, from a Hiroshige woodblock print), we are let into the mind of Vincent the artist as well as Vincent the man.