Press Release

Media inquiries:
Sharon Reed, Public Relations Coordinator
Hood Museum of Art, (603) 646-2426 • sharon.reed@dartmouth.edu
* Color slides and electronic images available upon request

Japanese Prints at the Hood Museum of Art

Hanover, NH—From March 25 through May 25, the Hood Museum of Art will present Inside the Floating World: Japanese Prints from the Lenoir C. Wright Collection, an intriguing selection of sixty woodblock prints from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries featuring the work of such notable artists as Utagawa Kunisada, Kitagawa Utamaro, Ando Hiroshige, Suzuki Harunobu, and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. The prints depict kabuki theatre, courtesan imagery, children, landscapes, and warriors, offering insight into the Japanese popular culture of the times.

Allen Hockley, Associate Professor of Art History at Dartmouth College and curator of the exhibition, will present an opening lecture on Wednesday, March 26, at 5:30 pm in the Arthur M. Loew Auditorium. A reception will follow in the Kim Gallery.

This exhibition explores the "floating world," a term meant to evoke the fleeting, ephemeral quality of pleasure and human experience in the entertainment districts of Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Working with themes of kabuki (traditional Japanese theater); bijinga (women); landscape; poets, authors, and heroes; and surimono (limited-edition prints created for special events or individuals), Japanese print artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries developed a popular visual culture that presented the floating world's intricate nuances in a medium that was highly sophisticated but relatively inexpensive.

Some highlights of the exhibition include Utagawa Kunisada's colorful and detailed triptych Interior of the Morita-za Kabuki Theater (1858). This work exemplifies those kabuki prints included in the exhibition that capture the complex social and artistic experience of the Japanese theater long after a performance ended and far beyond the boundaries of the theater district. Through the use of minute detail, Kunisada effectively conveys the presence of the disparate social classes enjoying this egalitarian form of entertainment. The wealthiest patrons are seated in the highest boxes to either side of the stage, clothed in elegant costumes and displaying elaborate coiffures as they gaze down at the action below.

Utagawa Hiroshige's One Hundred Views of Edo: Meguro Drum Bridge and Sunset Hill (1857) reflects the popularity of depictions of natural wonders, sacred sites, and places of historical significance at a time when pilgrimage and travel were on the rise. The human presence in these scenes emphasizes how people used the landscape as well as its aesthetic qualities. Most nineteenth-century landscape prints were conceived in series, deriving their inspiration from poetic anthologies such as One Hundred Poets, One Line Each, which Hiroshige adapted for his series of views of the city of Edo. The serialization of these prints rendered them highly marketable and inexpensive for consumers.

Kitagawa Utamaro's Women under Wisteria (1790s) provides an excellent example of a bijinga (beauty picture). These prints depict women of all classes and professions but were especially concerned with images of courtesans from the city of Edo's Yoshiwara district, an area in which prostitution was legalized and courtesans were viewed as exemplars of sexuality and fashion. In this example, two statuesque beauties stand under a wisteria branch, boasting intricate hairstyles of the period.

Inside the Floating World is organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Its presentation at the Hood Museum of Art is generously supported by the Marie-Louise and Samuel R. Rosenthal Fund and The Hansen Family Fund and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. An extensive website (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ukiyoe) features prints from the Hood's collection and supplements and enhances many of the subjects and themes explored in the exhibition.

The Weatherspoon Museum's Japanese print collection has been acquired over the past fifty years by Dr. Lenoir C. Wright, Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Following its presentation at the Hood Museum of Art, the exhibition will travel to the University of Oregon Museum of Art.