Hymn to Beauty - The Art of Utamaro
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats_on?eventid=3198

There are only 2 weeks left to go see this fantastic exhibition at The Art Gallery of NSW, so shut down your web browser and get out of the house and go see it!

Kitagawa Utamaro lived from around 1753 to 1806 and is one of the best known ukiyo-e artists. Ukiyo-e are wood block prints and the term literally means, "Pictures of the Floating World", which is usually taken to mean pictures that show the impermanent, fleeting beauty of life. They often show scenes or characters from the "pleasure districts", a realm of entertainment where you can forget the worries of your more permanent and dreary "real life". Utamaro was particularly famous for his bijin-ga, or pictures of beautiful women.

I once watched a Japanese documentary where a man owned an original Utamaro woodblock, as well as an original print from the block. An ancient old man who was an expert in woodblock art, used the original woodblock, old style inks and the "instructions" written on the block, to create a new print from the original block. The new print showed a depth of detail that no-one had imagined was possible in a woodblock print. It really showed what a talented artist Utamaro had been. It also impressed on me what a valuable art form woodblock prints are. To be able to reproduce the artist's work centuries later in the same way it would have been printed in the 1700's, was just amazing.

Although the Art Gallery of NSW has understandably snapped up much of our stock, J Style does have two washi paper canisters available with prints of ukiyo-e by Utamaro on the paper. The Purple Ukiyo-e canister is Toji San Bijin "Three Beauties of the Present Day" by Kitagawa Utamaro. The Three Beauties in question are Nanbaya Okita, Takashimaya Ohisa and Tominoto Toyohina. Three highly regarded courtesans of the late-1700's.

The art on J Style's Red Ukiyo-e canister is Sugatami Shichinin Kesho "Seven Women Applying Make-up in a Mirror" by Kitagawa Utamaro. Of course this is just one of the seven women in the series of prints Utamaro created, but it is by far the most popular.

Search the web for Utamaro and you will find a wealth of information about the artist and his art. If you are too far away to visit the Art Gallery of NSW, a browse of the internet will give you a least a small peep into the art that has become synonymous with The Japanese Beauty.