rinpa

Designing Nature,
The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art

Trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. It is open on Monday holidays, so it seemed like a good time to go.

The exhibit I wanted most to see, “Late Klee,” was not open. So I went to the exhibits on manipulating photos (before and after Photoshop), and then walked through the “Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years” exhibit. I found a lot to look at in both, but my favorite exhibit turned out to be one I almost skipped, the exhibit linked above on the Rinpa aesthetic. The Rinpa style is

marked by a bold, graphic abbreviation of natural motifs, frequent reference to traditional court literature and poetry, the lavish use of expensive mineral and metallic pigments, incorporation of calligraphy into painting compositions, and innovative experimentation with new brush techniques.

Calligraphy looks so natural when incorporated into these artworks, whereas our fonts look so blocky and out of place pasted on top of an image. I am curious about how to incorporate text more naturally into images, so I enjoy looking at the calligraphy. I also liked the bold, stylized treatment of natural motifs.

Here’s a phone photo crop of the most deliciously mottled ink, a technique called “tarashikomi.”

Sakai Oho (1808-1841), Autumn Maple