{"id":17699,"date":"2019-05-15T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=17699"},"modified":"2019-05-22T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:00:14","slug":"discovery-of-rare-prints-leads-to-landscapes-of-edo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/05\/15\/discovery-of-rare-prints-leads-to-landscapes-of-edo\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery of rare prints leads to Landscapes of Edo<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Landscapes\nof Edo: Ukiyo-e<\/em>\nfeatures an abundance of Japanese prints from artists such as Utagawa\nHiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai that were pulled together from The\nArt Gallery of Greater Victoria\u2019s extensive collection. For curator\nHaema Sivanesan, the process of putting this collection of ukiyo-e<\/em>\u2014a\nstyle of Japanese art that depicts the life of the common people\nthrough block prints and paintings, with a focus on a wide range of\nsubjects ranging from sumo wrestlers to landscapes\u2014together\nentirely from the gallery\u2019s archives was a bit of a whirlwind\nexperience. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\nwere going through a process of reviewing what was in our\ncollection\u2014at the same time we\u2019re working very quickly at the art\ngallery right now in terms of our exhibition generation and\nturnaround\u2014and we just realized there was an opportunity there in\nthe collection to do an exhibition that showcased some of the key\nworks in ukiyo-e\n<\/em>prints in our\ncollection,\u201d says Sivanesan. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\norder to pull this collection of approximately 200 pieces together,\nSivanesan\u2014who only had six months to create it\u2014worked with fellow\ncurator Su Yen Chong, a recent MA graduate from University of\nVictoria who had done some research with Sivanesan while doing her\nmaster’s studies. Sivanesan says the time crunch the two found\nthemselves under was the biggest challenge for them\u2014in addition to\nmatting and framing several of the pieces, there was also an\nabundance of research and consultations required for the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a massive undertaking to do any exhibition,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd, when you\u2019re working with historical materials it\u2019s kind of another level of, you know, wanting to check and make sure that what you\u2019re showing is of the highest quality, and you\u2019re checking other museums to see what\u2019s unique and what\u2019s not unique, so it makes a huge difference working with a collaborator who had the background and the interest for her to take on some of that research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Utagawa Ando Hiroshige\u2019s Yoshiwara: Mount Fuji on the Left<\/em> (photo courtesy of the Fred and Isabel Poward collection).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nexhibition is running juxtaposed with Fiona\nTan: Ascent <\/em>and\nQuiet Nature: The Woodblock Prints of Walter J. Phillips<\/em>,\nshowcases that demonstrate the lasting impact ukiyo-e<\/em>\nhas had on landscape work. Landscapes\nof Edo: Ukiyo-e <\/em>also\nfeatures a complete set of Utagawa Hiroshige II\u2019s Forty-Eight\nFamous Views of Edo, <\/em>a\ncollectionwhich\nSivanesan says they didn\u2019t realize they had in its entirety until\nthey pieced it all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s\na very rare set,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s very rare to find a\ncomplete set of prints like that. There are very, very few museums in\nthe world that have it, so it was really wonderful to find that in\nour collection. So that was the starting point, and we kind of built\nout the exhibition from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nstressful as the preparation of the exhibit was, Sivanesan says that\nnow that it\u2019s open for viewing the public response has been\npositive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople\nlove it,\u201d she says. \u201cI think there are a lot of people who really\nlove Japanese art. And [the pieces] are obviously very beautiful to\nlook at. But they\u2019re also very interesting for all of the\nreferences that are within them, because they had such a big impact\nin Japan and on Western art history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landscapes of Edo: Ukiyo-e<\/em>
Until Monday, May 27
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
aggv.ca<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landscapes of Edo: Ukiyo-e features an abundance of Japanese prints from artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai that were pulled together from The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria\u2019s extensive collection. For curator Haema Sivanesan, the process of putting this collection of ukiyo-e\u2014a style of Japanese art that depicts the life of the common […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-15-2019-issue"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17700,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699\/revisions\/17700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}