Awash in color
Subtitle: French and Japanese prints
By: Chelsea Foxwell and Anne Leonard ; with David Acton ... [et al.].
Contributors: Leonard, Anne (Anne Rachel); Acton, David, 1953-; David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art
Publisher: Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 191
ISBN-13: 9780935573510
Subjects: French Color prints; Japanese Color prints; Exhibitions
Description: "When Japan opened to the West in 1854, the prints known as ukiyo-e (or “images of the floating world”) fascinated and delighted European audiences, especially in France where the term japonisme was coined to describe the influence of this art form. Yet this familiar narrative emphasizes the impact of one artistic culture upon another, ignoring the fact that both Japan and France had flourishing traditions of color printmaking before the opening of Japan. Awash in Color, an exhibition organized by the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, presents a new perspective on color printmaking and print technologies in both cultures, beginning well before 1854. In this exhibit catalog, the authors put forth an ambitious parallel history with more than 100 exquisite color prints and wood-block-printed books that trace the evolution of color printing technologies from the early eighteenth century through the explosion of color print techniques in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, and finally to the twentieth-century “return” of woodblock printing as seen in aesthetic movements such as European Art Deco. Distinguished contributors span a wide range of fields and provide insight and context for the work within Japanese and French art history, as well as the study of printmaking. A beautiful companion to an important exhibit, Awash in Color is essential reading—and viewing—not only for scholars of Japanese and European art, but also design enthusiasts everywhere" -- Publisher description.
Notes: Catalog of an exhibition held at Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Oct. 4, 2012 - Jan. 20, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The social landscape of color printmaking: Japan and beyond / Chelsea Foxwell; title: Crypto/chromo: color and the reproduction of images / Anne Leonard; title: The virtuoso printmakers of eighteenth-century France / David Acton; title: The development of color printing in Japan: some early single-sheet prints; title: David Waterhouse; title: Working at the edge: Japanese elision and Western printmakers / Drew Stevens; title: The decadent Japanese woodblock print: application and preservation of color in the mid-nineteenth century / Andreas Marks; title: Color in the age of mechanical reproduction: chromolithography in nineteenth-century France / Laura Kalba; title: The color woodblock print: some thoughts on translation / Anne Leonard; title: Classicizing the creative print: Yamamoto Kanae in France / Stephanie Su.