Discussion

While Japanese woodblock printing had been around since the early 1600s, Japanese woodblock artists were changing the art form stylistically during the modernist period.

For this assignment:

• Go to this Smithsonian online exhibition:  Dream Worlds. (Links to an external site.)
• Click on the Dream Worlds picture to start the presentation.
• Once the presentation opens in another window, click on the blue tab panel on the right (there are five tabbed pages:  white, green, red, blue and pink) so that you are on the page called The Quality of Light. 
• Under the picture on the right, there is a button to add screen.  The screens are the pictures on the left.  Click add screen to add each screen to the picture, until you get to the finished picture.  Pay close attention to how each screen affects the look of the light of the main picture.
• Once you have done that, answer the following:
  • As each screen was added to the picture, how did the light change?
  • How much did adding color and textures affect the light from screen to screen?
  • Finally, compare and contrast the works below.  One set is by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and the other by the man who created the bridge woodblock in the Quality of Light presentation, Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)