Drama and Desire: Japanese Painting from the Floating World, 1690-1850 | 
 enlarge | Authors: Howard Hibbett, Masato Naito, Kobayashi Tadashi, Asano Shugo, Hokusai, Utamaro
Creator: Anne Nishimura Morse
Publisher: MFA Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $55.00
Buy New: $34.46
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 384696
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 248
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.1
Dimensions (in): 11.6 x 10 x 1.1
ISBN: 0878467106
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN: 9780878467105
ASIN: 0878467106
Publication Date: July 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A rare gem: Drama and Desire presents 69 masterpieces of Japanese ukiyo-e painting by such renowned masters as Hokusai, Utamaro and Harunobu, among others--all depicting aspects of the so-called "floating world," the licentious demimonde of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), where actors and courtesans, rich patrons and bohemians, cavorted. While woodblock prints of the floating world have long been a favorite of art lovers, the remarkable ink-and-dye paintings of the period are far less known and much less available. This volume collects key examples by some of Japan's most important artists, each conveying a singular and very moving freedom of expression. Here, we find wistful interiors of courtesans at rest, onstage panoramas of actors in their finery, explicitly erotic scenes of lovemaking and outrageous fantasies. Essays by renowned American and Japanese scholars, including Howard Hibbett and Masato Naito, set the context with discussions of Edo society and culture, the ways in which "high" and "low" arts mixed in ukiyo-e painting, and the prominent roles played by courtesans, geishas and male prostitutes in the subculture of the period. This is a milieu of passion and mystery, color and flamboyance, boldly rendered in these uncommonly exotic masterworks. Published to accompany the first major American exhibition of ukiyo-e paintings in recent years, hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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A top pick July 10, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
DRAMA AND DESIRE: JAPANESE PAINTINGS FROM THE FLOATING WORLD 1690-1850 blends a history of Japanese paintings and painters with a catalog of full-page color reproductions of paintings representing the best and most classic works of the period from 1690-1850. Thanks to a grant, nearly thirty scholars traveled to Boston to study over four thousand paintings, sculptures, textiles, masks and lacquer pieces, taking photos of each object and producing bilingual catalogs published to make the Museum of Fine Art's holdings available to the world art community. DRAMA AND DESIRE furthers this objective, and is a top pick for both art libraries and college-level holdings specializing in Japanese history and culture.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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