COURTESY OF PARALLEL FORM
COPYRIGHT © THE ARTIST
In this triptych series, Ukiyo-e 1, 2, and 3, Studio Acacia has created a series that explores an art form that was a source of great inspiration for so many modern artists, from Cézanne to Manet — Japanese woodblock printing, otherwise known as Ukiyo-e or ‘pictures of the floating world,’ a style of art that was epitomised by Katsushika Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ (1831) and Utagawa Hiroshige’s ‘Station of Otsu’ (c.1848-9). Using these two seminal works as the starting point of this triptych series, Studio Acacia explores Ukiyo-e in its various forms and definitions.
In the first of this triptych series Studio Acacia explores ‘Ukiyo-e’ in it’s fundamental form, and literal translation, a picture of the floating world. Although in Japan’s Edo period the ‘floating world’ referred to its brothel and theatre districts, in the first piece of this series the ‘floating world’ is understood in more simple terms. Swathes of pink and burgundy interchange to float on top of each other.
Manet had a variety of influences: the Barbizon school, Constable, Turner and Whistler to name a few, but one of his greatest sources were these two-dimensional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints which started to appear in Europe after the mid-1850s. The flat graphic artworks of masters such as Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) were revered by Manet. Studio Acacia has combined the flat graphics with Ukiyo-e’s literal transaltion to form her own ‘floating world’.
Katsushika Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ (1831)
The influence of the seminal work ‘The Great Wave’ by Hokusai can be seen in the foreshortened perspective. An influence that also runs through Manet’s ‘Olympia’ and ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’, as well as in this Studio Acacia’s ‘Ukiyo-e 1’. Her flat perspective and asymmetrical composition are standard to the techniques that Japanese woodblock prints employed to generate emotional tension. She has further employed gold leaf to exaggerate their diaphanous interplay while the vertical print of ‘Ukiyo-e’ hangs like a scroll from the top right corner.
In the second of this series ‘Ukiyo-e 2’, Studio Acacia further explores the meaning of Ukiyo-e, and allows its elasticity to further influence her work.
In the first of this triptych series Studio Acacia explores ‘Ukiyo-e’ in it’s fundamental form, and literal translation, a picture of the floating world. Although in Japan’s Edo period the ‘floating world’ referred to its brothel and theatre districts, in the first piece of this series the ‘floating world’ is understood in more simple terms. Swathes of pink and burgundy interchange to float on top of each other.
Manet had a variety of influences: the Barbizon school, Constable, Turner and Whistler to name a few, but one of his greatest sources were these two-dimensional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints which started to appear in Europe after the mid-1850s. The flat graphic artworks of masters such as Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) were revered by Manet. Studio Acacia has combined the flat graphics with Ukiyo-e’s literal transaltion to form her own ‘floating world’.
The influence of the seminal work ‘The Great Wave’ by Hokusai can be seen in the foreshortened perspective. An influence that also runs through Manet’s ‘Olympia’ and ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’, as well as in this Studio Acacia’s ‘Ukiyo-e 1’. Her flat perspective and asymmetrical composition are standard to the techniques that Japanese woodblock prints employed to generate emotional tension. She has further employed gold leaf to exaggerate their diaphanous interplay while the vertical print of ‘Ukiyo-e’ hangs like a scroll from the top right corner.
In the second of this series ‘Ukiyo-e 2’, Studio Acacia further explores the meaning of Ukiyo-e, and allows its elasticity to further influence her work.
Studio Acacia
Ukiyo-e 1, 2024
Screenprint
257 mm x 364 mm
Edition of 6
Numbered and signed
Unframed
£65
Triptych Series (Ukiyo-e 1-3) - £155