Heritage Malta is holding an exhibition of Ukiyo-e prints from Japan at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta. On display are works by important artists famous for this type of art.
Ukiyo-e prints were a type of mass produced art easily within reach of the general public. Favourite subjects include theatres, restaurants, teahouses, geisha and courtesans. Many Ukiyo-e prints were also used as posters to advertise theatre performances and brothels, idol portraits of popular actors and beautiful teahouse girls. The early woodblock prints were spare and monochromatic, printed in black ink only, but later grew rich in color.
Ukiyo-e prints had a decisive impact on the development of the modern artistic idiom in European art. Van Gogh avidly collected them while Toulouse Lautrec and Degas imitated them.
The exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts, which will be open to the public until January the 17th, includes works by well known artists such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Toshusai Sharaku (active 1794-95).
This project is a joint collaboration between Heritage Malta and the Malta Japan-Association. The collection of twenty eight prints was originally presented to Heritage Malta by the Japanese OTA foundation in 1991.