Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

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[Flex Mentallo]

For me, his prints of abalone divers are the greatest masterpieces in all of Japanese art.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Ama divers have for two thousand years practised their trade of diving for shellfish, seaweed, and pearls off the coasts of Japan. Traditionally they dive naked except for a waistcloth and a cord with one end above the water. They also carry a knife to pry open shells. Ama once numbered many thousands,but by the beginning of the 21st century only about a thousand remained. Though depicted in their youth in ukiyo-e pictures, the ama was a lifetime job that continued into the woman's fifties.

Ama were known for their coarse manners, and their work coarsened their skin. This was in great contrast to the geishas and courtesans who were normally the subject of ukiyo-e art—their manners were refined, they dressed elegantly, they immersed themselves in high art and culture, and they commanded high prices for their services. The ama were perceived as less feminine, but socially and sexually free. Utamaro and others played with these contrasts, portraying ama in elegant, resting poses as they often did with geisha, but nude and unkempt in their work environment. While Utamaro's supple, energetic, and vigorously healthy ama come across in a way erotic, his depictions of them differ from his often sexually explicit shunga. It has been speculated such prints of women who appeared nude in broad daylight may have arisen in reaction to government suppression of shunga.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utamaro's_pictures_of_abalone_divers

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

I think this is perhaps his masterpiece.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Flex Mentallo

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[sacentaur]

11 hours ago, Flex Mentallo said:

There is something magical about these images - they are so restrained, and yet when I look at them, I feel drawn into their world, and that I am looking at a real person, not a cypher.

Exactly (well said).

I am however avoiding books with Japanese text as I very much enjoy the background stories and print analysis. 

[sacentaur]

With my local gallery, Utamaro’s prints sell out and it’s not unusual for none to be available. This attests not only to the top quality of his work, but also to the early era that they were produced.

I just checked the gallery, this is the only print available (circa 1797); certainly not a favorite, but then not too expensive either: 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Starstruck

Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood

By Ira M. Resnick

[Flex Mentallo]

Another fabulous publication by Abbeville - actually published in 2010 but I only 'discovered' it last year. The featured posters are almost enough to make me question my choice of collecting comics!

 

From the web site:

During his more than forty years as a film historian, Ira M. Resnick amassed a superb collection of more than 2,000 vintage movie posters and 1,500 stills. They were never shared with the public until Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood was published in 2010. This remarkable volume features the best of Resnick’s collection, with vivid reproductions of 250 posters and 40 stills from 1912-1962, Hollywood's golden age.

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