Omori Beach at Night 1930

Hasui Kawase made this woodblock print, Omori Beach at Night, and the gradations of color alone are enough to make you swoon. Kawase is totally in control, mixing a rich, deep blue with lighter shades to make a surface that both recedes and shimmers. The watery surface is amazing - it’s got depth but it's also a flat plane, divided by vertical strokes where the moonlight hits. This technique reminds me of Gerhard Richter, who would drag squeegees of paint across his canvases to make these blurry, photorealistic paintings, but with something always abstracted in the process. It’s a way of working that's not about representation but about feeling, about using a mark to capture a moment. The details in the buildings are minimal, which contributes to the emotional tone of the piece. This image, with its quiet beauty, makes me think about how much art is about an ongoing conversation across time. Each artist picks up on the work of those who came before, adding their own voice to the mix.