Diving

Today we end our monthly partnership with the Rijksmuseum's collection with this amazing example of Japanese art of the 20th century. 

Kōshirō Onchi was a Japanese photographer, print-maker, and the father of the sōsaku-hanga movement in 20th-century Japan. This movement was opposed to the parallel shin-hanga ("new prints") movement that maintained the traditional ukiyo-e collaborative system where the artist, carver, printer, and publisher engaged in division of labor. Here it stressed the artist as the sole creator motivated by a desire for self-expression, and advocated principles of art that are "self-drawn," "self-carved," and "self-printed." 

Onchi's prints range from early representational to postwar abstract prints. He was more interested in expressing subjective emotions through abstract prints than in replicating images and forms in the objective world. His works evoke lyrical and poetic mood. And often like in the print we present today, the artist was more interested in the photography-like frame and the modern composition of the scene, than the scene itself.

P.S. If you love Japanese art as much as we do, please check out our Japanese Art 50 Postcards set!

P.P.S. Want to see more divers (and bathers!) in art? Look no further!

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