Utamaro Revealed
List Price: $47.50
Price: $31.97
You Save: $15.53 (33%)
List Price:
Price: $31.97
You Save: $15.53 (33%)
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Utamaro
The Complete Woodblock Prints of Kitagawa Utamaro: A Descriptive Catalogue
 List Price: Price: $62.71 You Save: $22.28 (26%) DescriptionKitagawa Utamaro was the leading light of the popular Ukiyo-e school of woodblock print designers during its golden age, famous throughout Japan within his own lifetime, an immeasurable influence upon nineteenth century French artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet, and is a continuing source of inspiration and admiration throughout the world today for his portraits of sumptuously garbed courtesans and sensitively drawn depictions of everyday life in eighteenth century Edo. This volume, the first catalogue to document all of Utamaro's known print designs in the broadsheet format, provides a comprehensive descriptive listing of the artist's works, along with more than a hundred and thirty reproductions of his prints, with accompanying indices to aid in the location of specific works by publisher's mark, subject, or title. This groundbreaking publication, the product of more than two decades of exhaustive research, forms a record of the artist's works that will serve as a lasting reference source for connoisseurs, curators, and dealers alike. Gina Collia-Suzuki is an artist and writer who lives and works on the southwest coast of England. She has been an avid collector of Japanese woodblock prints, in particular those designed by Kitagawa Utamaro, for more than two decades. Initially a student of Western art, she encountered Japanese woodblock prints for the first time in 1985 and was immediately taken by their striking and bold designs, the compositional skills of their designers and the abilities of the craftsmen responsible for carving the blocks. In 1986 she met Jack Hillier, the world-renowned Ukiyo-e scholar, who became her mentor, and their friendship lasted until Hillier's passing in 1995. For more than twenty years she has devoted herself to the study of the woodblock prints of Kitagawa Utamaro, and is the author of 'Utamaro Revealed: A Guide to Subjects, Themes and Motifs'.
Utamaro: Portraits from the Floating World
 List Price: Price: $15.92 You Save: $9.08 (36%) DescriptionWho was the man behind the pseudonym "Utamaro"? We know that he was one of the greatest artists of eighteenth-century Japan, and that he was a master portraitist of women in the woodblock-print tradition known as ukiyo-e. But as for the man himself, we know almost nothing. The little there is-gleaned from contemporary books, miscellaneous writings, temple registers-is brought together in this book to present as clear a picture of Utamaro's life as modem researchers are capable of. Utamaro is placed in his cultural setting-the pleasure-loving urban culture of eighteenth-century Tokyo, the shogun's capital and the de facto center of JapanUtamaro's world was that of teahouse girls and courtesans whose fame and popularity can only be compared, in modern terms, to those of a movie actress whose name is on every man's lips. His was a world of popular literature and art, of publishers competing for the work of the most talked-about writers and artists. This world, however, was under the constant scrutiny of the authorities, and near the end of his career, Utamaro fell afoul of the government's proscription of certain subject matter, and he was sentenced to three days in prison and fifty days in hand chains. But Utamaro's life is only one theme of this book. The other is the development of his art, the perfection of his depictions of women that enabled him to capture subtle moods and differences of character. The prints of women produced by the ukiyo-e artists preceding Utamaro showed expressionless beauties of little individuality. It was against this that Utamaro rebelled, creating such prints as that of the kashi, one of the lowest ranking of courtesans-in fact, a mere prostitute. Recognizing within himself the power to see and depict the individual behind the outward appearance, Utamaro added to some of his prints the notation "Studies in Physiognomic Judgment of Character by Utamaro." Modem opinion tends to agree with Utamaro's assessment of himself, and his reputation as an artist of the inner woman has firmly established him in the top ranks of the ukiyo-e world.
Poem of the Pillow and Other Stories By Utamaro, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, and Other Artists of the Floating World
 List Price: Price: $30.73 You Save: $19.22 (38%) DescriptionShunga, such as the famous Japanese erotic pillow books, also known euphemistically as 'spring images', were vibrant, curious and explicit documents of sexual life, designed to inform, thrill and entertain. This book presents a comprehensive modern study on Japanese erotic art, illustrating a large selection of the best works from public and private collections from around the world. Far from being a separate genre, Shunga constitutes at least half of the output of all ukiyo-e art, and often the largest part of any given artist's production. Once surprising, this is now only recently beginning to be taken for granted, and the qualities usually given to the greatest masterpieces of ukiyo-e art, acclaimed for their subtlety, elegance, refinement and novel composition, are now being attributed to the blatantly pornographic images produced by the same artists. The social and religious attitudes of pre-modern Europe both prevented the appreciation of Shunga prints. The cultural context of pre-modern Japan was markedly different to that of Europe, and allowed a vibrant, uninhibited and widely circulated genre of erotic imagery to develop. Edmond de Goncourt first started to collect Japanese art works including Shunga prints, and published the first monograph on a Japanese artist in 1891. De Goncourt's interest in Utamaro gave sexualized prints particular importance, making them integral to the history of Japanese art and its reception in the Western world. Artists such as Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin among others were known for their love of Shunga prints and were influenced by the unusual framing and arbitrary colors of Japanese printing methods. Shunga notably came to the West during the Art Nouveau period when collecting Japanese prints became popular, and traces of Shunga styles and elements have visibly influenced this artistic period. The most famous and recognizable shunga work is Hokusai's depiction of a young woman being ravished by an octopus in his album "Pining for Love". Compared to Western perceptions of the nude and its associations with sex and the Christian concept of original sin, mere nakedness held little erotic interest to the Japanese viewer. This explains why Japanese erotica is so extreme in its sexual depictions and why many of the prints, paintings and scrolls illustrated in this book depict clothed or half clothed figures. Some Shunga images illustrate famous tales, while others present unrelated sequences of sexual tableaux, often depicting all ages from virginal teenagers to old married couples, as well as all types of sexual activities, be it masturbation, heterosexual, homosexual or group sex. Much if not most Shunga was published in book form, as opposed to the single sheets that dominate the 'normal' ukiyo-e market, which allowed pictures to be easily carried about and, importantly, stored unobtrusively. This is the case of Utamaro's famous album, "Poem of the Pillow", which is reproduced in this publication in its entirety, as are many albums notably by Hokusai, Harunobu, Kuniyoshi and many others. The book also illustrates some of the rarer Shunga works such as the beautiful handscrolls made by such artists as Kyonobu, Sukenobu and Shuncho. These demonstrate particularly the expressive vibrancy of color and interest in surface pattern that are aesthetically important in the Japanese print. Gian Carlo Calza's insightful text is accompanied by 350 color images, offering a great variety of examples from traditional Japanese erotica. The book comprises of a general introduction which sets the artists and their work in their social, historical and artistic context. The book is then organized by artist with a short text on each artist, introducing the illustrated works. The author references the latest in art historical scholarship, but this book is also aimed at readers who may not have specialist knowledge or extensive familiarity with Japanese culture.
Utamaro (Temporis Collection)
 List Price: Price: $20.00 You Save: $19.95 (50%) DescriptionIf sensuality had a name, it would be without a doubt Utamaro. Delicately underlining the Garden of Pleasures that once constituted Edo, Utamaro, by the richness of his fabrics, the long necks of swans, the mysterious looks, evoke in a few lines the sensual pleasure of the Orient.
Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty
 List Price: Price: $45.50 You Save: $21.50 (32%) DescriptionUtamaro News
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Korea TimesOpie Finds Realism in Minimalist FiguresOpie says famous Japanese ukiyo-e or woodblock printmaker Kitagawa Utamaro had inspired him, and he also collects hand-painted animation cells from 70s and 80s Japanese anime series. Four pieces feature a Japanese print dealer named Ken and his pop
Antiques and Arts WeeklyRivenburg's Auction Gallery 15 carved jade figures, lapis carved figures, Hokusai Katsushika Fuji In Clear Weather print , Vecetaur Matisse print, Fleurs De Neige Matisse print, Utamaro Kitagawa The Golden Age print, Katsukawa Shunso print, plus dozens of other prints.