Author: KEYES, ROGER (CATALOGUE); HILLIER, JACK (INTRODUCTION)
Title: The Art of Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Woodblock Prints and Books in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (2 Volumes in Slipcase)
Description: Philip Wilson Publishers, London for Sotheby's Publications. 1985, 1st Edition. (ISBN: 0856671762). Hardcover, with dust jacket. Book, English text.; Hardcover (cloth with dust jacket in slipcase); 25.5 x 30 x 7 cm (with slipcase); 25 x 34 cm.; 4.4 Kg.; 569 pages with black and white a a few colour illustrations throughout.; Used with minor signs of wear on the dust jackets and on the interior. The slipcase is worn and show signs of wear, namely a tear throughout all the bottom, which is now glued with book tape.; The Japanese word surimono means "a printed objet". During the 1760s, it began to be applied to a new form of woodblock print whose popularity lasted well into the nineteenth century: the privately commissioned print, published in a limited edition for distribution among a circle of friends or associates. Most surimono fall into one of two categories: those which commemorate a special event and those which combine a picture with verse. Both types incorporate a written text, and one of the most rewarding qualities of surimono lies in the extraordinary subtlely (especially in verse surimono) with which the artist complements with his imaginary the content of the text, so that picture and words together yield a richer experience than either could create independently. The advent of surimono coincided with major advances in colour-printing, and the form was to attract artists to the stature of Gakutei, Hokkei, Hokusai, Kunisada, Shinsai and Shumman. Drawing their subject-matter from siuch veried sources as legend and literature, social customs, topography, the theatre, crafts and ordinary life, these and other masters share with us a vision of the world which explores every shade of human feeling and response. There is no more comprehensive collection of surimono in Europe than the one which the English scholar Jack Hilier began to assemble in the 1950s for the Chester Beatty Library Dublin: this book provides an illustrated catalogue of the collection. The first and largest of its three sections includes surimono in the Ukiyo-e style procuced in the Edo between the 1760s and 1840s. The second includes the privately printed illustrated books and albuns which are also in the library. The third consists of prints by artists of the Shijo school, mostly created in Osaka 1850-70. The catalogue is preceded by a historical introduction; biographies of the artists are given before the relevant entries and two final sections are devoted respectively to an index of the kyoka poets whose verses appear on the surimono in the first section and to later copies of the prints. This lavishly illustrated book will provide an essential source of reference for collectors and students of Japanese prints. Good/Dust Jacket Included.

Keywords: 0856671762 japan,japanese art,ukiyo-e,motonobu,surimono,books,shijo artists,japanese prints. Asian Art Japanese Art


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