Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Colonel & The Barracuda, continued






When Jack C. presented me with Japanese prints that he had purchased when stationed overseas, there were three that I just didn't like. So they'd been sitting in my basement, instead of Jack's garage, collecting even more dust, until a few weeks ago when my pashion of woodblockprints blazed up again. So I flipped over the frames, tore off the back paper and pried out the prints.
And the answer, I still don't really the three prints all that much. Especially the two by Keiko Yurimoto (one shown here, of a woman playing a samisen).
On the other hand, the print by Tokuriki Tomikichiro, of a paper lantern seller, is starting to grow on me. Somehow the childishness of the lines seems to fit the subject, a child's version of Shin Hanga. Like so many other artists, I find that some of his prints really are marvelous, while others just do nothing for me.
It's sort of ironic that my first successful auction on eBay was the purchase of another Tomikichiro print.
These are almost primitives, especially when compared to the precision of Hasui Kawasu. There is so much variety between artists, and so much variety even within one artists's work. Kiyochika is a perfect example of that, but that's a story for another entry.





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