Hiroshige and Hokusai

           In 1853, American Matthew C. Perry led a naval fleet into Tokyo Bay and forced Japan to ally itself with the American Army. It was the last decades up until this day that marked the last years of non-international Japanese History, a time in which Japanese art and lifestyles were completely different. Ukiyo-e was a nationally widespread popular genre from the 17^th to the 19^th centuries, it was a genre that produced many great artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige. These artists were extremely successful painters and printmakers from the school of printmaking. Ukiyo-e was an art style popular during the great Edo period and as such was marketed towards the wealthy people of Edo during the time.

            Hokusai and Hiroshige were very similar in their lifestyles; both had periods of their lives where their artwork was made up primarily of landscape artwork not prominent in the Ukiyo-e style, and both painted the Kabuki dancers and young women that did make up the Ukiyo-e. Many people assume that Hokusai was Hiroshige’s mentor and teacher however this is exactly true, in fact I would classify them more as rivals. Although Hokusai produced much more artwork then Hiroshige it is thought the Hiroshige to be the more successful artist of the two. I saw they are rivals because rising artists in the beginning of the 19^th century were improving upon the old masters of the art style like Hokusai.

            Many great series of art came from these two artists such as Hokusai’s most popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, and Hiroshige’s Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. Hokusai was known by many names during his time, however he is most famously known by Katsushika Hokusai by which name he produced most of his best and most famous works at the age of 60. This contrasts Hiroshige who only took the name of his master Utagawa and reached the peek of his success in 1833 at the age of 36. 

The Great Wave - Hokusai

Self Portrait - Hiroshige

Self Portrait - Hokusai

Goten-Yama Hill - Hokusai

Full Moon Over Mountain Landscape - Hiroshige

From Fifty-Three Stations on the Tokaido - Hiroshige

The New Design of Write and the Four

As the twentieth century rolled around new forms of art were being introduced to the world. While Art Nouveau was still a dominating style in graphics artists from all disciplines looked to other forms of expressing their styles. Most of these interests were fueled by the technological and industrial advances of the time. Many artists kept in mind the fundamentals of Art Nouveau by trying to break away from the fixed design styles of natural and historical concepts and create new abstract or non-conceptual designs. Germany Scotland and Austria were the main hubs during this time for designing new styles of artwork that would portray the social, economic, and cultural changes of the time.

            One such example of this was American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose geometric design style focusing on spatial organization was just reaching the eyes of European designers and artists. To Wright, space was the most important element of design, this came about when he worked with his friend on a printing press. Working on the press taught him many valuable lessons about space and how negative space can be used effectively. He used blank space as boundaries that keep his work organized as well as to combined elements for his design to work together. His works during this time brought him to the head of the modern movement which influenced many others.

            In Scotland, Wright’s work was inspiring a group of individuals who would later become known as the Four. J. Herbert McNair, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and sisters’ Margret and Frances Macdonald all attended the Glasgow School of Art where they brought about a new style of geometric art influenced by Wright’s design style. Because this new style had never been seen before in Scotland, art scholars and observers were furious with the Four. Editor of The Studio however loved their boldness and traveled to Glasgow to publish articles about them reminding everyone that the purpose of design was to attract attention and that this new design style did exactly that. Through these articles the Four became revered around Europe but were very much looked past in Britain.

Mackintosh designed this poster for the Glasgow School of Fine Art,
that caused outrage among its observers.

Wright used geometric shapes in his borders as seen above.
This style was used to create eye appealing perimeters for the designer to work in.

This is an example of Wright's rectangular design used to help different
elements of the whole piece to work together more efficiently.