Utagawa Hiroshige, “Yamashiro Province: The Togetsu Bridge in Mount Arashi (Yamashiro, Arashiyama Togetsukyo),” from the series Famous Places in the Sixty-Odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue), 1853
An exhibition opening this weekend at the Art Institute of Chicago plunges into the vast archives of renowned Japanese ukiyo-e artists Katsushika Hokusai (previously) and Utagawa Hiroshige(previously). Fantastic Landscapes brings together the vivid scenes created by the prolific printmakers through the first half of the 19th Century with a particular focus on their innovative uses of color. Peach skies, grassy bluffs in chartreuse, and their extensive applications of Prussian blue—Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” famously layers the chemical pigment—mark a broader shift in the artform. Today, the pair are largely attributed with sparking a worldwide fascination with Japanese prints. […]
Katsushika Hokusai, “A Mild Breeze on a Fine Day (Gaifu kaisei),” from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei), c. 1830/33
Source: ‘Fantastic Landscapes’ Surveys the Vivid Use of Color in Hokusai and Hiroshige’s Woodblock PrintsUtagawa Hiroshige, “Awa Province: Naruto Whirlpools (Awa, Naruto no fuha),” from the series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue), 1855
More:https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/07/hokusai-hiroshige-woodblock-prints/
Those landscapes are fantastic, although I am kind of a barbarian with regard to paintings. When I hear 36 views of mount Fuji”, Monet’s haystacks come to my mind …
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I can see a connection… I thought art was (or sometimes tries to be), to some extent universal?
There’s also the theory that every piece of art you connect to rewires your brain (as does any thought really), so that once you see some aspect of a pebble as the artists saw it for instance, you may start to see that in other rocks and pebbles thereafter?
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I am sure that everything we see and experience changes our outlook on the world in general or individuel things in one way or the other, which I believe is good, it is development as the opposite of stagnation.
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Wonderful article with a ton of great info!
Ukiyo-e
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