HOKUSAI AND UKIYO-E. THE FLOATING WORLD

The catalog of the exhibition at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Chicago presents a collection of Japanese works, offering the public an in-depth knowledge of Japanese painting production during the Edo period (1603-1868), particularly of ukiyo-e, the 'images of the Floating World'. The volume includes a selection of hanging vertical scroll paintings (kakemono) and hand-painted horizontal scrolls by great masters of different schools, starting from the mid-17th century. It also features color woodblock prints with black outlines and hand-painted parts - a technique that evolved into nishiki-e, the famous polychrome 'brocade images' - as well as printed and painted fans, and high craftsmanship objects that testify to the rich Japanese artistic and artisanal tradition, such as board games and musical instruments, narrating the evolution of taste, trends, and entertainment culture that developed during the long Tokugawa peace corresponding to the Edo period. The extraordinary works on display come from the prestigious Italian collections of the E. Chiossone Oriental Art Museum in Genoa.