Press Release

Ukiyo-e: Passions and Pleasures

December 1, 2007 - March, 2008

Hurst Gallery presents Ukiyo-e Passions and Pleasures: 1600s -1900s, a collection of over 60 woodblock prints from Japan. Hurst Gallery’s annual exhibition and sale of Japanese woodblock prints represents a number of early masters, including works by Moronobu, Harunobu, Kiyohiro, Kiyonaga, Kogai, Shun'ei, and Utamaro as well as a group of anonymous Utagawa School Shunga, or erotic prints. The exhibition also includes designs by Meiji artists, including Yoshitoshi, and the Kuchi-e artists Toshihide, Toshikata, and Terukata. Kuchi-e were popular woodblock prints made for the Japanese market circa 1985 - 1915.

A large variety of designs from myth, legend, kabuki plays and landscapes by Hiroshige and his followers will also be available for viewing and purchase. Hurst Gallery organizes an Ukiyo-e exhibition each winter, creating a welcoming venue for scholars, advanced collectors, as well as the general public with a taste for Japanese art and design.

Many of the prints come from the collection of an Ivy League college museum and were acquired in the early 20^th century when interesting and unusual prints from the 18^th century were more readily available and affordable.

Visitors to the exhibition may find unfamiliar designs or states of designs and will have the opportunity to view and acquire work by artists they may never before have encountered for sale. The prints include depictions of the pleasure quarter and its inhabitants, landscapes, and theatrical subjects.