Bird and Blossom

About

For Bird and Blossom, MMoCA presents a selection of kachō-e (flower-and-bird pictures) woodblock prints from the Museum’s permanent collection. This exhibition explores artistic renderings of the natural world through two pivotal Japanese print movements: the Edo and Meiji era ukiyo-e and twentieth-century shin hanga. In these colorfully rendered works, animal-habitat relationships prompt close examination. Delicate surface details, the result of the multiblock woodblock printing process, convey naturalistic specificity as well as moments of poetic stylization.

The 20 artworks in the exhibition were collected by Madison residents Rudolph and Louise Langer which formed part of the foundational gift to the Museum’s permanent collection in 1968. This presentation of Langer Bequest prints not only prompts conversations about the history of Japanese printmaking but also is a reminder of MMoCA’s foundational strength in prints. Reengaging with these prints in a contemporary setting invites the larger discussion of how our relationship with and understanding of the collection shifts over extended periods of time and in new contexts.

Ukiyo-e: “floating world pictures,” prints from the Edo and Meiji era. The “floating world” refers to the world of entertainment and pleasure, with common subjects being courtesans, actors, mythology, and flora and fauna.

Shin-hanga: “new prints,” twentieth-century prints. The term was coined in 1915 by Shozaburo Watanabe, the foremost publisher of shin-hanga. Stylistic changes include depth of field and different approaches to perspective, influenced by the wider availability of Western art in Japan.