July Issue 2002
Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, Features Exhibition of Japanese Art Forms
The Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, presents the exhibition, Floating World: Japanese Woodblock Prints, Kimono Cloth, and Kimonos, on view through Sept. 8, 2002, on loan from the Gallery of Art & Design, North Carolina State University. The exhibition is the last to be held at the original home of the Waterworks Visual Arts Center which will be moving to its new facility in Jan. 2003.
The exhibition features woodblock prints by Kunisada Toyokuni II produced from 1847 to 1861, which illustrate plays and portray famous actors of the day. Many of the prints are posters advertising theatre performances or idol portraits of popular actors. Kunisada's art, seen in his own day as merely popular art, had a profound influence on European and American artists in the late 19th Century. With the opening of trade relations with Japan in 1854 by American Naval Commander Matthew Perry, Western artists were exposed for the first time to a new visual language which portrayed the world in a much more abstract way than the traditional realism of Western art forms. The Impressionists were particularly influenced by Japanese art. Van Gogh acquired hundreds of Japanese woodcuts, even tracing images directly onto his canvas, and Matisse assimilated the flattened ornamental woodcut patterns into his work.
Kunisada, who later changed his name to Toyokuni II in honor of his great teacher, was one of the most skilled and popular of the Ukiyo-e (literally meaning "pictures of the floating world") artists. Kunisada's work depicts scenes of famous actors from plays in the kabuki theatre and demonstrates the importance and influence that theatre had on both art and life in Japan. Ukiyo-e was also closely connected with the pleasures of teahouses, restaurants, and courtesans.
The exhibition is a tour-de-force in the art of woodblock printing which took the work of three people - the artist, the publisher, and the carver. The artist drew the print and decided the overall color scheme. The publisher handled the commissioning for the work. The carver cut the actual design for the print out of cherry or pear wood. These fascinating images have grown from their original function as a type of "Playbill" to collector's items for admirers of Japanese art and theatre.
The exhibition also includes examples of kimono cloth and kimonos so beautifully rendered in the Kunisada prints. Ki comes from kim, which means "to wear," and mono means "thing." The kimono is a highly symbolic garment and, over time, has become an outward sign of social conditions, such as a woman's marital status. Today, the kimono is worn with an obi, a decorated band of cloth that is wrapped tightly around the torso and tied at the back. The obi has always been an important decorative element of the kimono ensemble. Fabric, color, sleeve length, and the details of the obi and how it is tied vary according to the wearer's age, social status, marital status, and season.
For more information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the center at 704/636-1882, e-mail at (waterworks@salisbury.net)
or on the web at (www.waterworks.org).
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