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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 second of this triptych series Studio Acacia has paired back from her first print to focus on another fundamental pillar of Ukiyo-e: two dimensional pictorial clarity.
Japanese woodblock prints were characterised by the use of bold lines and flat areas of colour, such as as epitomised by Katsushika Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave' (1831). The foreshortened perspective of Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ is a theme that runs through Manet’s ‘Olympia’ and ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’, as well as in this Studio Acacia’s ‘Ukiyo-e 2’. Her flat perspective and asymmetrical composition are standard to the techniques that Japanese woodblock prints employed to generate emotional tension.
The removal of the gold leaf from the first print revolves around a second fundamental pillar of woodblock prints — the slow deconstruction of a floating world — a theme that is fully explored in the third and final print of the series.
In the second of this triptych series Studio Acacia has paired back from her first print to focus on another fundamental pillar of Ukiyo-e: two dimensional pictorial clarity.
Japanese woodblock prints were characterised by the use of bold lines and flat areas of colour, such as as epitomised by Katsushika Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave' (1831). The foreshortened perspective of Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ is a theme that runs through Manet’s ‘Olympia’ and ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’, as well as in this Studio Acacia’s ‘Ukiyo-e 2’. Her flat perspective and asymmetrical composition are standard to the techniques that Japanese woodblock prints employed to generate emotional tension.
The removal of the gold leaf from the first print revolves around a second fundamental pillar of woodblock prints — the slow deconstruction of a floating world — a theme that is fully explored in the third and final print of the series.
Studio Acacia
Ukiyo-e 2
Screenprint
257 mm x 364 mm
Edition of 6
Numbered and signed
Unframed
£65
Triptych Series (Ukiyo-e 1-3) - £155