Chosen Artists

The artists I intend to study is Kitagawa Utamaru who specialises in woodblock art and painting, and is known for his popular composed illustrations of ‘bijinga’ such as the Geisha series ‘Flowers of Edo’, which had a great influence towards many artists in Europe with Utamaru’s emphasis of light and shade. I will then be exploring the style of his work which is presented in a 2-Dimensional form in contrast to the Japanese illustrations now which is delivered in a 3-Dimentional form for a realistic overview of the art, and also over viewing how it differs from my other chosen artist who shares the similar concept, each conveying it through very different styles providing a sense of a theme ‘same but different’.

The second artist I will be researching into is of a similar artist called Kobayakawa Kiyoshi who is also another specialist in the field of woodblock art and ‘bijinga’. The main aspect of their work I will be concentrating on is the strong contrast of his multiple different series of art work he has produced with varieties of pieces of traditional woman to a series of modern western-styled woman with one particular piece of a woman holding a cigarette displaying the juxtaposition between the two contrasting series. This depicts the end of the traditional ‘bijinga’ woman and a new era and outbreak of Japanese modern culture. I will also be studying his choices of patterns and combinations of colours shown complimenting the different colours against one another through the clothing of the woman on his pieces presenting the contrast between Kiyoshi’s clashes of bright, colourful style of art to Utamaru’s faded, subtle colours. 

 

And the third artist I will be studying is Masashi Kishimoto who is very well known for his artwork of the Anime/ Manga ‘Naruto’ which is one of the most popular anime/ manga internationally admired by millions of people. I will be examining the style of illustrations to comics/ graphic novels the artist produces developing skills in the field of comics which is a new environment for me.

Introduction

During this project, I intend to analyse and investigate the detailed study of Eastern-Asian art focusing on the traditional Japanese paintings and identifying the effects it leads towards contemporary Japanese illustrations such as Mangas. This project will present the transition of the old to the new, the past traditional art to the modern illustrations displaying the influences and the approach the past has led to the present.  The aspects of the fine art I will be exploring involves the contents of Japanese scroll art/ woodblock art also known as ‘ukiyo-e’, and ‘bijinga’ which is the term used for ‘beautiful woman’ wearing traditional clothing – kimonos mostly.  In addition, I will also be examining in full depth the different forms of art mangas provide presenting the changes from the development from past to present as well as the changes through the styles, media and techniques.