Ike Taiga and Tokuyama Gyokuran : Japanese Masters of the Brush

by Felice Fischer with Kyoko Kinoshita; With essays by Jonathan Chaves, Sadako Ohki, and Shimatani Hiroyuki

• ISBN13: 9780300122183
• ISBN10: 0300122187
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2007-05-24
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Ike Taiga (17231776) and his wife Tokuyama Gyokuran (17271784) were preeminent artists in 18th-century Japan. This landmark bookthe only comprehensive survey available in Englishfocuses on the life and times of these artists and accompanies the first-ever exhibition devoted to their work in the United States. Considered by contemporaries to be an eccentric marvel, indifferent to worldly preoccupations, Taiga is best known as an exponent of the so-called Nanga school of Chinese literati painting. He was hugely prolific and experimental, working in an impressive range of styles, techniques, compositions, and subjects to produce over 1,000 calligraphies and paintings, and many large-scalefusuma(sliding doors) and screens. While not as well known as her husband, Gyokuran was a significant artist and a well-regarded poet of Japanese verse. Taiga wrote poetry in Chinese, and translated poems by both artists are featured prominently in this volume.

Author Biography

Felice Fischer is The Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese Art and Curator of East Asian Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Table of Contents

Ike Taiga, a life in art	p. 13
The life and art of Tokuyama Gyokuran	p. 33
Taiga and landscape painting : translations and transformations	p. 53
Printed books on painting : Edo-period imports from China and Taiga's manuals	p. 65
Taiga's ink bamboo with Chinese verse : collage of painting, calligraphy, and poetry	p. 75
The fascination of Taiga's calligraphy	p. 95
Taiga and Chinese poetry (Kanshi)	p. 105
Plates
Early works	p. 118
Chinese themes	p. 146
Calligraphy	p. 188
Japanese themes	p. 212
Chinese landscapes	p. 244
Late works	p. 336
Catalogue of works	p. 376
Taiga's Chinese poetry	p. 477
Dictionary of seals	p. 485
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