japonisme

25 January 2012

mew

there's so much to say about today's selection of images, but i won't say it all because to tell you the truth i am simply not interested in who patented what technique and who showed what when. i shall remind you, though, that what all of these artists were doing at that moment of time was nothing short of revolutionary in that they were breaking free of the academy's formal classicism. though each has his own distinctive style, they are clearly friends and brothers, and students of the new japonisme that facilitated that break.


crossword

a woman moves through dog rose and juniper bushes,
a pussy clean and folded

between her legs,
breasts like the tips of her festive shoes
shine silently in her heavy armoire.

one blackbird, one cow,
one horse.
the sea beats against the wall of the waterless.
she walks to a phone booth
that waits
a fair distance from all three villages.


it’s a game she could have heard on the radio:
a question, a number,
an answer, a prize.
her pussy reaches up and turns on the light in her womb.

from the rain,
she says into the receiver,
we compiled white tables and chairs under a shed
into a crossword puzzle
and sat ourselves in the grid.


the receiver is silent.
the bird flounces
like a burglar caught red-handed.
her voice stumbles
over her glands.
the body to be written
in the last block—
i can suck his name
out of any letter.

all three villages cover their faces with wind.

Valzhyna Mort

Source: Poetry (December 2009)

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11 February 2011

lily pond: art detective

yesterday i went through all 968 posts and put the label 'detective' on all of them that did what this post and yesterday's try to do. if you see any that should be marked, or unmarked, please let me know.

to the left and below we have the utamaro image that eventually may have cost him his freedom, and then his life. next the kunisada print, done perhaps in homage. we've seen them before. at the top, though, is a new one to me... apparently jail didn't stop utamaro.

i'll let you know if i find that bird again.

the red rose girls again impress us with their hip-ness, as elizabeth shippen green has volume 4 of artistic japan propping up the child's chessboard.

maybe some day i'll be able to id some of those other books. this one, i happened to have.

and manuel robbe does it again, though in the reference print, the other print is reversed!

i'm certain that many of his prints feature reference prints of his other works; i'll let you know if i figure any more.

i was realizing the other day that i seem to have passed into a different phase. i'm no longer hunting for that print by arthur wesley dow or bjo nordfeldt that i've never seen. there aren't any more.

but now my head is filled with files which allow this kind of connections to click in my brain. so to see some similar posts from earlier in the blog-life, click:

DETECTIVE

(and ps--i've got a lot more in the wings)

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09 February 2011

art detective





how i love to play detective. when i first saw the vallotton painting i thought i recognized the print on the wall. finally dug it up, it's by his compatriot, vuillard. i looked too at a similar print (the name of the painter of which i will fill in when i remember it!), but then i was so excited when i remembered which one it was.

the next one, i knew what it was imme- diately, but it took me a while to find it online. it's so cool when artists highlight other artists.



willcox does it again with william nicholson's book. (okay, i changed the cover to red, but why not?)

artists also fea- ture them- selves! willcox fea- tures an image from the book on the cover.


and manuel robbe has a woman perusing another of his own prints.







but what gives me a cool chill is knowing two of my favorite artists, at different times, sat in the exact same spot, and were each moved to paint it.














and this last is just a hoot: which came first, the poster mocking the women or the women mocking the poster?

oh silly me -- the poster is in the photo!

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07 January 2010

vamp 'til ready

i'm working on a project that is taking a looooooooong time,
so i thought i'd give you something to play with.


HODLER

ROBBE

HOYTEMA

CZESCHKA

POUND

YEATS

STEICHEN

PHILLIPS

YOSHITOSHI

CASSATT

i tried finding photos of artists who have been featured here, when they were fairly young. for these artists, this is the best i could do. i could find no photographs of a young mary cassatt, only this painting. but i read something interesting while i was looking:

Although Mary Cassatt was a member of and surrounded by an astounding Impressionist circle, she was drawn to one genius and artist in particular. Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt shared a very unique and intimate relationship. Both rejecting the conservative artistic directions, Cassatt and Degas' restless intelligence drew them together. Both Degas and Cassatt inspired and facilitated each other's artistic careers. Cassatt even proclaims “the first sight of Degas' pictures was the turning point in my artistic life.” In fact, it was the sight of Degas' pastel work that turned Cassatt onto pastel for the first time. Cassatt and Degas soon became quick supporters of each other's work. For instance, Cassatt bought one of Degas' pastels and brought it back to America, making it the first Impressionist artwork to come to America. 1

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17 December 2009

ding dong ding

VOICES OF TWO BELLS
THAT SPEAK FROM
TWILIGHT TEMPLES...
AH! COOL DIALOGUE


BUSON


















MY TWO PLUM TREES ARE

SO GRACIOUS ...
SEE, THEY FLOWER
ONE NOW, ONE LATER


BUSON

NONE BROKE THE SILENCE...
NOR VISITOR
NOR HOST ...
NOR WHITE
CHRYSAN-
THEMUM


RYOTA

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12 March 2009

an old woman



how luminous the young girls are.

TO A POOR
OLD WOMAN


munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand










They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her













You can see it by

the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand





Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her

William Carlos Williams

From Collected Poems: 1939-1962, Volume II by William Carlos Williams, published by New Directions Publishing Corp. © 1962 by William Carlos Williams.

how few of us there are in song and story.

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