View in Rain c. 19th century

Editor: This is Hiroshige's "View in Rain," a 19th-century woodblock print. The driving rain immediately catches my eye. What I find especially captivating is how the whole scene feels almost blurred together by it. What stands out to you when you look at this piece? Curator: What I find compelling is the industrial *means* by which such supposedly “ephemeral” scenes get memorialized. It's easy to overlook that the ‘art’ of this ukiyo-e print is dependent upon the skilled labour involved in producing and printing the woodblocks – from the artisan who first conceived of and incised the design, to those workers lower down the totem pole who prepped materials, mixed colours, applied ink, and physically cranked out copies. Have you considered the way ukiyo-e prints became commercially available? Editor: That’s interesting; I hadn't thought about the printmaking process itself as part of the "view". So the proliferation of prints democratized art to some extent? Making them available to a wider audience? Curator: Precisely. And what are the implications when art becomes accessible to consumers from multiple socioeconomic backgrounds? Hiroshige and his publishers became participants in creating demand for these prints of the everyday and idealized scenes and selling that desire to a burgeoning consumer culture. Look at the lone figure walking within the view - would this man be of the artisan or merchant class? Or an idealized romantic symbol, walking through what was once an exclusive realm available to aristocrats only? Editor: I see, the artwork speaks about broader access and industrial means of production rather than a simple beautiful scene. Something about commercializing landscapes, bringing them from exclusive to the open market? I hadn't considered that the consumption and labor intertwined can be art in and of itself! Thank you! Curator: Of course. And that labor creates more avenues to view our social positions. Thank you for your interesting perspective.