Title
Designs of birds, flowers and figures on fans
1920-1940
Artist
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Details
- Other Title
- Birds, flowers and figures on scattered fans
- Place where the work was made
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Japan
- Period
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Taishō period 1912 - 1926
→
Japan
Shōwa period 1926 - 1988 → Japan - Date
- 1920-1940
- Media categories
- Screen , Painting
- Materials used
- pair of six-panel screens; ink and colour on gold ground
- Dimensions
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a - right screen, 126 x 320 cm
b - left screen, 126 x 320 cm
- Signature & date
Signed: Sekka hitsu (painted by Sekka), seal
- Credit
- Yasuko Myer Bequest Fund 2011
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 219.2011.a-b
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Kamisaka Sekka
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Kamisaka Sekka is considered to be one of Japan’s most significant artists, designers and art instructors of the first half of the 20th century. By employing newly developed aniline dyes and fusing motifs and decorative styles of Art Nouveau, especially the British Arts and Crafts Movement with traditional Rinpa painting styles and motifs, Sekka imbued Japanese designs with a flair of modernity and timeless, international appeal.
This pair of six-fold screens is a wonderful illustration of a 'picture-in-picture' composition (gachūga), in which the main subject of the screens – 17 fully opened fans – are themselves decorated with motifs drawn from courtly novels and poetry, as well as flowers and birds of the four seasons. The designs on the fans are carefully chosen to suggest a pictorial history of the Rinpa lineage: abbreviated landscape motifs in gold and silver paint and scenes based on the classical literature typical of Sōtatsu, stylised Kōrin waves and naturalistic Hōitsu flower paintings. Sekka includes images that are recurrent in his own works such as mushroom-shaped pine trees, red maples or cranes and pines, thereby firmly positioning himself within the Rinpa legacy.
Kamisaka Sekka: A dawn of modern Japanese design, AGNSW 2012, pg 85.
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Places
Where the work was made
Japan
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
One hundred flowers (2011), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 01 Sep 2011–15 Jan 2012
Kamisaka Sekka - Dawn of modern Japanese design, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 Jun 2012–26 Aug 2012
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Khanh Trinh (Editor), Kamisaka Sekka: dawn of modern Japanese design, Sydney, 2012, 84-85 (colour illus.). cat.no. 32
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