Vissersdorpje Possibly 1909

Curator: Alright, let's take a look at "Vissersdorpje," or "Fishing Village," a woodblock print that’s possibly from 1909 by Kamisaka Sekka, housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Whoa. That's… oddly soothing, like staring into a very organized, almost geometric dream. It's giving me twilight vibes, a touch of melancholy but mostly calm. What are those netting things? Curator: Precisely. Consider the artist's play with line. Those "netting things," as you called them, intersect and overlap, creating a unique foreground that both obscures and reveals the village scene behind. The lines add depth, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely, the lines add such a wonderful depth! At first it seemed almost childish, or amateur, then the more I see of how it works together it becomes fascinating. And that inky blue sky against the beige houses... Is it about showing two sides of a fisherman's world? Curator: One could argue that Sekka employs ukiyo-e techniques but disrupts them. The color palette is subdued, and the composition veers away from traditional perspective, creating a flattened, almost abstract plane. This disrupts conventional representations of landscape. Editor: See, that's what I mean about it feeling both old and new at the same time. I love that juxtaposition of the detailed line work of the fishing nets that is laid out in very shallow perspective. I imagine that fishermen looking into the sunset wondering what's ahead. What do you think? Curator: Interesting. The very materiality of the print —the grain of the wood, the layering of ink —contributes to its subtle texture. It’s a highly formalized distillation of a scene. Editor: It makes me think that sometimes what's most interesting in life is in the unseen structure under it all, like fishing nets holding the promise of the sea or the formal construction underneath the wild, ever-changing sky. Curator: Indeed, a fitting metaphor. I think, with Sekka's print, we appreciate a harmony created through calculated, carefully designed artifice. Editor: Totally! A great piece. Definitely one to sit with and ponder for a while.