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STPI’s ukiyo-e show reveals Japan’s ‘floating world’

SINGAPORE — From the art world’s most familiar image of a sea wave to mysterious, sensual portraits of geishas, it’s time to enter the “floating world” of ukiyo-e.

SINGAPORE — From the art world’s most familiar image of a sea wave to mysterious, sensual portraits of geishas, it’s time to enter the “floating world” of ukiyo-e.

On display at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) are more than 60 woodblock prints that comprise its latest exhibition, Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact Of Japanese Prints. The works, which come from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute Of Arts (MIA), include Katsushika Hokusai’s Under The Wave Off Kanagawa, Utagawa Hiroshige’s iconic travel scenes and Kitagawa Utamaro’s bijinga (or beautiful women portraits).

MIA deputy director and chief curator Matthew Welch said, these were considered “pop art” during Japan’s Edo period. And somewhat like the contemporary art movement spearheaded by the likes of Richard Hamilton and Andy Warhol, these were irreverent and even subversive. From 1615 to 1868, the country, under the Tokugawa shogunate, closed its boundaries and was highly militarised. It was also an incredibly prosperous society where, inside the self-imposed bubble, art and culture flourished, including ukiyo-e. The term literally translates to “floating world pictures”, and the word “ukiyo” means “transitory pleasures” by the lower classes, hence the early images of geishas and actors.

These intricate, delicate works were “sophisticated and crude at the same time. Respectable people didn’t collect ukiyo-e”, said Welch. Nonetheless, they were popular among the masses, and like modern day magazines, men would be attracted to the images of courtesans, while women went for the fashionable styles and goods of the time.

But by the 19th century, the discovery of a stronger blue pigment and a growing interest in travel saw ukiyo-e accommodating landscapes now immortalised in the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige. For Welch, it also meant that the initial, sensual basis of the ukiyo had somewhat changed, even if these still fell under the same genre.

Nevertheless, its popularity remained — and eventually extended outside Japan. After it reopened its doors to the West post-Edo, popular European movements such as Impressionism heartily consumed the styles and techniques of ukiyo-e, from its unique way of cropping a scene, to its flat areas and linework, to its choice of ordinary people and situations as subject matter, said Welch.

And it is evident today in the flat portraits of people by British artist Julian Opie, or Japan’s own superstars such as Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and Tabaimo. A handful of supplementary works on display at the STPI reveal their endless appeal too, such as British photographer Emily Allchurch’s cheeky recreations of ukiyo-e images in contemporary settings and Hong Kong artist Wilson Shieh’s deadpan portraits of naked people as musical instruments.

Ed Pop: The Graphic Impact Of Japanese Prints runs until Sept 13 at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 41 Robertson Quay. Free admission. There will be a talk by Dr Welch today, 2.30pm. For more information, visit http://www.stpi.com.sg.

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