Bamboo
Okuhara Seiko
Description
During her lifetime, Okuhara Seiko painted many works featuring bamboo. Here she skillfully modulates her brushwork to create the illusion of a three-dimensional space: by adding and relieving pressure on the brush, she suggests overlapping leaves, receding in space. The calligraphy is particularly vibrant, and the frenetic character of the brushwork may allude to the artist’s affiliation with the eccentrics—a literary group active in the Tokyo region in the late nineteenth century. Calligraphy is an extremely malleable medium that can be used to reinforce the meaning or emotional tenor of words. Compared to the more cursive brushwork of Sakai Hōitsu, shown nearby, the spindly form of the characters effectively mimics the natural form of the bamboo leaves, blurring the boundary between text and image.
Subject Matter:
Okuhara Seiko was a popular artist of her time and this painting subject of bamboo was common during her time and throughout Japanese paper and ink art.
Physical Description:
This is a hanging scroll depicting bamboo and a roughly sketched nature scene in the background. To the right edge is a two-line inscription, obscuring a red seal on in the second line. The bamboo is centered on the left edge.
Usage Rights:
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