Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Imagination on the Winter Mountain

Preview image of work. woodblock on paper, Imagination on the Winter Mountain 23252

2011.30.2

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Imagination on the Winter Mountain

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Artist

Umetaro Azechi (Uwajima in Ehime prefecture on the island of Shikoku, Japan, 1902 - )

Title

Imagination on the Winter Mountain

Creation Date

1962

Century

mid-20th century

Dimensions

23 in. x 15 in. (58.42 cm x 38.1 cm)

Object Type

Creation Place

Asia, Japan

Medium and Support

woodblock on paper

Credit Line

Gift of Ted and Marcia Marks in memory of Emily Howe Marks

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2011.30.2

Azechi’s print is an unconventional expression of the artist’s love for the mountains, one of his favorite subjects. Almost abstract, it reflects the non-representational qualities of sōsaku-hanga and is characteristic of a shift in Azechi’s work that began in the 1950s, as he responded to the influence of his contemporaries in Japan and abroad. His compositions typically reduce a subject to contours and dominant colors; in Imagination, some of the boundaries of form and line are dissolved as well, leaving color as the primary vehicle of meaning. A narrow palette evokes the essential elements of the mountains from which Azechi draws inspiration: the blues and whites of ice and snow, the deep charcoal shades of weathered stone, and the soft greys of cloud cover.