Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Rain


These images by the printmaker Kawase Hasui (1883 – 1957) are from the extensive online galleries of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.








In Modern Japanese Prints 1912-1989, Lawrence Smith writes of Kawase:
During his career he produced over 600 landscape prints, including seventeen series, covering most areas of Japan, which he constantly travelled. After a period of eclipse following his death, he has now become recognized as Japan's best print landscapist since Hiroshige.

3 comments:

Will said...

I really love this artist. (And I happened to get caught in the rain without an umbrella tonight -- good times.)

Unknown said...

it's the contrast between the rain, isolation of the human, and the presence of other humans or an indication of their presence by the lights in the windows of the houses or on the objects being rained.

Unknown said...

part of the power comes from the contrast of the slicing rain fall to the signs of human presence : other humans, houses with lit windows, brighter rivers, etc. solitary requires presence of others.