Matthi Forrer

Hokusai, one of Japan's most famous artists, has left a body of work comprising almost 30,000 items. This volume, designed as a catalog to accompany an exhibition in London, gives us an overview of 13 drawings and 151 woodblock prints representing landscapes, amorous couplings, kabuki actors, and scenes of daily life in 18th-century Japan.

Prints and Drawings

Hokusai

Henry D. Smith

Jūzō Suzuki

This volume offers an excellent overview of the accomplished artist who was one of the leading creators of landscape imagery in Japanese printmaking.

Hiroshige

Now available again, this delightful selection of prints depicting nineteenth century Japan’s natural beauty is a colorful introduction to the country’s most beloved artist. The Japanese artist Hokusai spent the second half of his life sketching and painting with tremendous energy nearly everything he saw, and this book focuses on one of his most productive periods, when the artist was in his seventies. This book presents fifty works of the artist’s astonishing oeuvre. It includes selections from his renowned series of woodblock prints, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, including "In the Hollow of a Wave," "Shower below the Summit," and "South Wind at Clear Dawn." Also presented are images of flowers, waterfalls, bridges, birds, and fish, demonstrating the uniquely precise yet passionate quality of Hokusai’s art. An expert on the artist’s work, Matthi Forrer provides illuminating commentary on Hokusai’s life and technique, offering insight into his enduring popularity throughout the world.

Mountains and Water, Flowers and Birds

Hokusai was one of the great masters of the Japanese woodblock print. His exquisite compositions and dynamic use of color set him apart from other printmakers, and his unequalled genius influenced both Japanese and a whole generation of Western artists. Now available for the first time in paperback, this book reproduces the artist's finest works in plates that convey the full variety of his invention, each of which is provided with an informative commentary. In his introduction, Hokusai expert Matthi Forrer traces the artist's career and defines his place in relation to his contemporaries and to the history of Japanese art. Examining all genres of the artist's prolific output -- including images of city life, maritime scenes, landscapes, views of Mount Fuji, bird and flower illustrations, literary scenes, waterfalls and bridges -- Hokusai, Prints and Drawings provides a detailed account of the artist's genius.

This lavishly produced authoritative monograph presents an in-depth view of the life and work of Utagawa Hiroshige, one of Japan's most revered artists. Presented in a style as stunning as the prints it celebrates, this survey of Hiroshige tells the fascinating story of the last great practitioner of ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world." Hiroshige is considered to be the tradition's most poetic artist and his work had a marked influence on Western painting towards the end of the 19th century. Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Paul C�zanne, and James Whistler were inspired by Hiroshige's serene depictions of the natural world. Arranged chronologically, this book illustrates through text and magnificent reproductions Hiroshige's youth and early career; his artistic development in the genre of landscape prints; his depictions of Edo and the provinces; the flower and bird prints; and his many popular books and paintings. It discusses the historic and cultural environment in which Hiroshige flourished and the many reasons his art continues to be revered and imitated. Filled with 300 color reproductions, and featuring a clamshell box and Japanese-style binding, this volume is destined to become the definitive examination of Hiroshige's oeuvre.

Matthi Forrer

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