Het Kyoto deel 1911 - 1912

This is 'Het Kyoto deel' made by Nakazawa Hiromitsu. Look at those ribbons of blue and gold cascading across the surface – it’s like the artist has taken the energy of the city and transformed it into something you can almost touch. I can imagine Hiromitsu working on this, carefully layering the colors, trying to capture the essence of Kyoto. He probably had the scents and sounds of the city in his mind. The materiality of this piece is interesting. The bold colors and blocky shapes create a flattened perspective, reminiscent of traditional woodblock prints. I am curious about the woman hunched over the ribbon on the lower left of the painting. Is she washing it or collecting it? The way she is represented here reminds me of the work of artists like Hokusai, but with a more modern sensibility. It’s all part of a big conversation that artists have been having for centuries.