High Class Oiran
Utagawa Kunisada Woodblock Print
The current exhibition at Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo is a knockout, its as good as arts gets in viewing pleasure, the eye is just seduced into the Kunisada's images with an ease and it seems to glide around these image like a Geisha eloquently walking between the old houses of Gion in Kyoto, its just pure sheer visual bliss.
Kunisada's sensibility in drawing is outstanding and reveals he is one of the great masters in the world of art, what contributes to that aforementioned statement is they way he forensically pays attention to detail from the drawn and colour intricacies of the kimono, to the almost simple linear gesture of the mouth that is slightly ajar and almost as if giving off an understated element of surprise, as if she had seen someone or something that caught her in an unguarded moment.
Another interesting issue about the Oiran's face is with all its apparent linear simplicity (which it is not, it Kunisada's savvy intentionality's in creating a drawn traces to represent his remembrances) and the way her eyes gaze back whilst the her body moves forward movement.
The Oiran's eyes are slightly slantwise and inquisitive to what has just distracted her and this type of in understanding the expression within the human face is very hard to learn and to master it as evidence here in this exhibition in bold and almost liminal intensities especially so in actors series of woodblock prints stands testament to his mastery as an artist.
Kunisada's prints of the beautiful woman of Edo were intriguing to see because in walking around Ginza to a restaurant the other night, there were many ladies who were shopping or going to meet with friends that were exhibiting a different, more modern type of glamour but nonetheless in looking closely at them, there was this same attention to the detail of personal aesthetic, it is a though facial grooming hadn't shifted all that much in its presentational importance. But this is Japan and the demands of perfection with its subsequent presentation is still very high.
If you were a young or old artist in Tokyo or even Japan this would be one of the exhibitions one should look at for the colour, textures, lines seen within this fantastic exhibition will not surrender to time with any ease they're so exquisite, there is few shows in the world that could show such an amazing oeuvre and this is one of them.
Link to the museum
The Oiran's eyes are slightly slantwise and inquisitive to what has just distracted her and this type of in understanding the expression within the human face is very hard to learn and to master it as evidence here in this exhibition in bold and almost liminal intensities especially so in actors series of woodblock prints stands testament to his mastery as an artist.
Kunisada's prints of the beautiful woman of Edo were intriguing to see because in walking around Ginza to a restaurant the other night, there were many ladies who were shopping or going to meet with friends that were exhibiting a different, more modern type of glamour but nonetheless in looking closely at them, there was this same attention to the detail of personal aesthetic, it is a though facial grooming hadn't shifted all that much in its presentational importance. But this is Japan and the demands of perfection with its subsequent presentation is still very high.
If you were a young or old artist in Tokyo or even Japan this would be one of the exhibitions one should look at for the colour, textures, lines seen within this fantastic exhibition will not surrender to time with any ease they're so exquisite, there is few shows in the world that could show such an amazing oeuvre and this is one of them.
Link to the museum
http://www.ukiyoe-ota-muse.jp/annai-E.html
