Lum, Bertha (1869 - 1954 )
Born in Tipton, Ohio, Bertha Boynton Lum received a diverse artistic education. In 1895, she studied design at the Art Institute of Chicago. She continued her education studying stained glass and illustration before returning to the Art Institute in 1901 to pursue figure drawing. During this time, she found strong influence in the Japanese aesthetic in the work of Arthur Wesley Dow. When her honeymoon took her to Japan in 1903, Lum hoped to learn woodblock printing, but returned to the U.S. with only the tools. Upon her return to Japan in 1907, Lum studied woodblock printmaking with block cutter Igami Bonkutsu and printer Nishimura Kamakichi. After returning to the U.S., Lum carved and printed woodblock prints herself. In 1908, she was named a master craftsman by the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. However, after returning to Japan in 1911, Lum began to divide the labor among hired block cutters and printers who worked with her in Tokyo. By 1917, Lum made California her permanent home and traveled to Japan, China, and Italy numerous times to live, study, and work. Today, she is associated with the popularization the woodblock printmaking outside of Asia.
Shin Hanga | Pre-WWII Japanese Prints
By the beginning of the 20th century the social fabric of Japan was radically altered and ukiyo-e was falling fast into oblivion. Surprisingly, it was under the stimulus of the Western art world that the spirit of ukiyo-e was reborn through the Shin Hanga or “new print” movement. The discovery of the powerful impact of ukiyo-e print masters on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists inspired a new generation of Japanese print artists who revived distinctly Japanese subject matter through modern eyes. International excitement for ukiyo-e paved the way for these artists to create woodblock prints with the same dignity, perfection and genius as the masters of the Edo period. As artists such as Goyo, Kotondo and Shinsui revived bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and Hasui and Yoshida reinterpreted the landscape of Japan, Shin Hanga reasserted the principal genres of ukiyo-e with a renewed vigor. Browse our collection of Shin Hanga and other pre-war Japanese artworks today.
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