Japanese oil paintings. Transitions and color solutions

Japanese painting is an absolutely unique movement in world art. It has existed since ancient times, but as a tradition it has not lost its popularity and ability to surprise.

Attention to traditions

The East is not only landscapes, mountains and rising sun. These are also the people who created his story. These are the people who keep the tradition alive Japanese painting for many centuries, developing and enhancing his art. Those who made a significant contribution to history are Japanese artists. Thanks to them, modern ones have retained all the canons of traditional Japanese painting.

Manner of execution of paintings

Unlike Europe, Japanese artists preferred to paint closer to graphics than to painting. In such paintings you will not find the rough, careless oil strokes that are so characteristic of the Impressionists. What is the graphic nature of such art as Japanese trees, rocks, animals and birds - everything in these paintings is drawn as clearly as possible, with solid and confident ink lines. All objects in the composition must have an outline. Filling inside the outline is usually done with watercolors. The color is washed out, other shades are added, and somewhere the color of the paper is left. Decorativeness is precisely what distinguishes Japanese paintings from the art of the whole world.

Contrasts in painting

Contrast is another characteristic technique used by Japanese artists. This could be a difference in tone, color, or the contrast of warm and cool shades.

The artist resorts to this technique when he wants to highlight some element of the subject. This could be a vein on a plant, a separate petal, or a tree trunk against the sky. Then the light, illuminated part of the object and the shadow under it are depicted (or vice versa).

Transitions and color solutions

When painting Japanese paintings, transitions are often used. They can be different: for example, from one color to another. On the petals of water lilies and peonies you can notice the transition from light shade to a rich, bright color.

Transitions are also used in the image of the water surface and sky. The smooth transition from sunset to dark, deepening twilight looks very beautiful. When drawing clouds, transitions from different shades and reflexes are also used.

Basic motives of Japanese painting

In art, everything is interconnected with real life, with the feelings and emotions of those involved in it. As in literature, music and other manifestations of creativity, in painting there are several eternal themes. This historical subjects, images of people and nature.

Japanese landscapes come in many varieties. Often in paintings there are images of ponds - a favorite piece of furniture for the Japanese. Decorative pond, several water lilies and bamboo nearby - this is what it looks like ordinary picture 17-18 centuries.

Animals in Japanese painting

Animals are also a frequently recurring element in Asian painting. Traditionally it is a crouching tiger or domestic cat. In general, Asians are very fond of and therefore their representatives are found in all forms of oriental art.

The world of fauna is another theme that Japanese painting follows. Birds - cranes, decorative parrots, luxurious peacocks, swallows, inconspicuous sparrows and even roosters - all of them are found in the drawings of oriental masters.

Pisces is an equally relevant theme for Japanese artists. Koi carp are the Japanese version of goldfish. These creatures live in Asia in all ponds, even in small parks and gardens. Koi carp is a kind of tradition that belongs specifically to Japan. These fish symbolize struggle, determination, and achieving your goal. It’s not for nothing that they are depicted floating with the flow, always with decorative wave crests.

Japanese paintings: depiction of people

People in Japanese painting are a special theme. Artists depicted geishas, ​​emperors, warriors and elders.

Geishas are depicted surrounded by flowers, always wearing elaborate robes with many folds and elements.

Sages are depicted sitting or explaining something to their students. The image of the old scientist is a symbol of the history, culture and philosophy of Asia.

The warrior was portrayed as formidable, sometimes terrifying. The long ones were drawn in detail and looked like wire.

Usually all the details of the armor are clarified using ink. Often naked warriors are decorated with tattoos depicting eastern dragon. It is a symbol of strength and military power Japan.

Rulers were depicted for imperial families. Beautiful robes, decorations in men's hair are what such works of art abound in.

Landscapes

Traditional Japanese landscape - mountains. Asian painters have succeeded in depicting a variety of landscapes: they can depict the same peak in different colors, with a different atmosphere. The only thing that remains unchanged is the obligatory presence of flowers. Usually, together with the mountains, the artist depicts some kind of plant in the foreground and draws it in detail. The mountains and cherry blossoms. And if they paint falling petals, the picture evokes admiration for its sad beauty. The contrast in the atmosphere of the picture is another wonderful quality of Japanese culture.

Hieroglyphs

Often the composition of a picture in Japanese painting is combined with writing. The hieroglyphs are arranged so that they look beautiful compositionally. They are usually drawn on the left or right of the painting. Hieroglyphs can represent what is depicted in the painting, its title, or the name of the artist.

Japan is one of the richest countries in history and culture. All over the world, the Japanese are generally considered to be pedantic people who find aesthetics in absolutely all manifestations of life. Therefore, Japanese paintings are always very harmonious in color and tone: if there are splashes of some bright color, it is only in the semantic centers. Using paintings by Asian artists as an example, you can study color theory, correct representation of form using graphics, and composition. The technique of execution of Japanese paintings is so high that it can serve as an example for working with watercolors and performing “washing” of graphic works.

Hokusai, Japanese artist 18th century, created a dizzying amount artwork. Hokusai worked into old age, invariably asserting that “everything he did before the age of 70 was not worthwhile and not worth attention.”

Perhaps the most famous Japanese artist in the world, he always stood out from his fellow contemporaries for his interest in everyday life. Instead of depicting glamorous geishas and heroic samurai, Hokusai painted workers, fishermen, and urban genre scenes, which were not yet a subject of interest for Japanese art. He also took a European approach to composition.

Here's a short list of key terms to help you navigate Hokusai's work a little.

1 Ukiyo-e are prints and paintings popular in Japan from the 1600s to the 1800s. Direction to fine arts Japan, developed from the Edo period. This term comes from the word "ukyo", which means "changeable world". Uikiye is a hint at the hedonistic joys of the burgeoning merchant class. In this direction, Hokusai is the most famous artist.

Hokusai used at least thirty pseudonyms throughout his life. Despite the fact that the use of pseudonyms was a common practice among Japanese artists of that time, he significantly surpassed other major authors in the number of pseudonyms. Hokusai's pseudonyms are often used to periodize the stages of his work.

2 The Edo period is the time between 1603 and 1868 in Japanese history, then economic growth and new interest in art and culture were noted.

3 Shunrō is the first of Hokusai's aliases.

4 Shunga literally means "picture of spring" and "spring" is Japanese slang for sex. Thus, these are engravings of an erotic nature. They were created by the most respected artists, including Hokusai.

5 Surimono. The latest “surimono,” as these custom prints were called, were a huge success. Unlike ukiyo-e prints, which were intended for mass audiences, surimono were rarely sold to the general public.

6 Mount Fuji is a symmetrical mountain that happens to be the tallest in Japan. Over the years, it has inspired many artists and poets, including Hokusai, who published the ukiyo-e series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. This series includes Hokusai's most famous prints.

7 Japonism is the lasting influence that Hokusai had on subsequent generations of Western artists. Japonisme is a style inspired by the vibrant colors of ukiyo-e prints, lack of perspective, and compositional experimentation.

Has very rich history; its tradition is vast, with Japan's unique position in the world greatly influencing the dominant styles and techniques of Japanese artists. Known fact That Japan was quite isolated for many centuries is due not only to geography, but also to the dominant Japanese cultural tendency toward isolation that has marked the country's history. During the centuries of what we might call “Japanese civilization,” culture and art developed separately from those in the rest of the world. And this is even noticeable in the practice of Japanese painting. For example, Nihonga paintings are among the main works of Japanese painting practice. It is based on over a thousand years of tradition, and the paintings are usually created with brushes on either vashi (Japanese paper) or egina (silk).

However, Japanese art and painting were influenced by foreign artistic practices. First, it was Chinese art in the 16th century and chinese painting And Chinese tradition art, which was particularly influential in several aspects. As of the 17th century, Japanese painting was also influenced Western traditions. In particular, during the pre-war period, which lasted from 1868 to 1945, Japanese painting was influenced by impressionism and European romanticism. At the same time, new European artistic movements were also significantly influenced by Japanese artistic techniques. In art history this influence is called "Japaneseism", and it is especially significant for the Impressionists, Cubists and artists associated with modernism.

The long history of Japanese painting can be seen as a synthesis of several traditions that create parts of a recognized Japanese aesthetic. First of all, Buddhist art and painting techniques, as well as religious painting, left a significant mark on the aesthetics of Japanese paintings; water-ink painting of landscapes in the tradition of Chinese literary painting - another important element, recognized in many famous Japanese paintings; paintings of animals and plants, especially birds and flowers, are what are commonly associated with Japanese compositions, as are landscapes and scenes from everyday life. Finally, great influence Japanese painting had ancient ideas about beauty from philosophy and culture Ancient Japan. Wabi, which means transient and rugged beauty, sabi (the beauty of natural patina and aging), and yugen (deep grace and subtlety) continue to influence ideals in the practice of Japanese painting.

Finally, if we concentrate on selecting the ten most famous Japanese masterpieces, we must mention ukiyo-e, which is one of the most popular genres of art in Japan, even though it belongs to printmaking. He dominated Japanese art from the 17th - 19th centuries, while artists belonging to this genre created woodcuts and paintings with such objects as beautiful girls, Kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers, as well as scenes from history and folk tales, travel scenes and landscapes, flora and fauna and even erotica.

It's always hard to make a list best paintings from artistic traditions. Many amazing works will be excluded; however, this list features ten of the most recognizable Japanese paintings in the world. This article will present only paintings created from the 19th century to the present day.

Japanese painting has an extremely rich history. Over the centuries, Japanese artists have developed large number unique techniques and styles that are Japan's most valuable contribution to the world of art. One of these techniques is sumi-e. Sumi-e literally means "ink drawing" and combines calligraphy and ink painting to create a rare beauty of brush-drawn compositions. This beauty is paradoxical - ancient yet modern, simple yet complex, bold yet subdued, undoubtedly reflecting the spiritual basis of art in Zen Buddhism. Buddhist priests introduced solid ink blocks and bamboo brushes to Japan from China in the sixth century, and over the past 14 centuries Japan has developed a rich heritage of ink painting.

Scroll down and see 10 Japanese Painting Masterpieces

1. Katsushika Hokusai “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife”

One of the most recognizable Japanese paintings is “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife.” It was written in 1814 famous artist Hokusai. If you follow strict definitions, this amazing work Hokusai cannot be considered a painting, as it is a woodcut of the ukiyo-e genre from the book Young Pines (Kinoe no Komatsu), which is a three-volume shunga book. The composition depicts a young ama diver entwined sexually with a pair of octopuses. This image was very influential in the 19th and 20th centuries. The work influenced more late artists such as Félicien Rops, Auguste Rodin, Louis Aucock, Fernand Knopf and Pablo Picasso.

2. Tessai Tomioka “Abe no Nakamaro writes a nostalgic poem while watching the moon”

Tessai Tomioka is the pseudonym of a famous Japanese artist and calligrapher. He is considered the last major artist in the bunjing tradition and one of the first major artists of the Nihonga style. Bunjinga was a school of Japanese painting that flourished in the late Edo era among artists who considered themselves literati or intellectuals. Each of these artists, including Tessaya, developed his own style and technique, but they were all big fans of chinese art and culture.

3. Fujishima Takeji “Sunrise over the Eastern Sea”

Fujishima Takeji was a Japanese artist known for his work in developing Romanticism and Impressionism in the yoga (Western style) art movement in late XIX- beginning of the 20th century. In 1905, he traveled to France, where he was influenced by the French movements of the time, particularly Impressionism, as can be seen in his painting Sunrise Over East Sea", which was written in 1932.

4. Kitagawa Utamaro “Ten types of female faces, a collection of ruling beauties”

Kitagawa Utamaro was a prominent Japanese artist who was born in 1753 and died in 1806. He is certainly best known for a series called "Ten Types female faces. Collection of ruling beauties, themes great love classical poetry" (sometimes called "Women in Love", containing separate engravings "Naked Love" and "Thoughtful Love"). He is one of the most important artists belonging to the ukiyo-e woodcut genre.

5. Kawanabe Kyosai “Tiger”

Kawanabe Kyosai was one of the most famous Japanese artists of the Edo period. His art was influenced by the work of Tohaku, a 16th-century Kano school painter who was the only artist of his time to paint screens entirely in ink on a delicate background of powdered gold. Although Kyosai is known as a cartoonist, he wrote some of the most famous paintings in Japanese history art of the 19th century century. "Tiger" is one of those paintings that Kyosai used watercolor and ink to create.

6. Hiroshi Yoshida “Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi”

Hiroshi Yoshida is known as one of the most large figures Shin-hanga style (Shin-hanga is an artistic movement in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, during the Taisho and Showa periods, which revived the traditional art of ukiyo-e, which had its roots in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th - 19th centuries)). He was trained in tradition western painting oil, which was borrowed from Japan during the Meiji period.

7. Takashi Murakami “727”

Takashi Murakami is probably the most popular Japanese artist of our time. His works sell for astronomical prices. major auctions, and creativity is already inspiring new generations of artists not only in Japan, but also abroad. Murakami's art includes a whole series environments and is usually described as a superplane. His work is known for his use of color, incorporating motifs from Japanese traditional and popular culture. The content of his paintings is often described as "cute", "psychedelic" or "satirical".

8. Yayoi Kusama “Pumpkin”

Yaoi Kusama is also one of the most famous Japanese artists. She creates in various techniques, including painting, collage, scat sculpture, performance, environmental art and installation, most of which demonstrate her thematic interest in psychedelic colour, repetition and pattern. One of the most famous series of this great artist is the Pumpkin series. Covered in a polka dot pattern, a regular pumpkin in bright yellow is presented against a net background. Collectively, all such elements form a visual language that is unmistakably true to the artist's style, and has been developed and refined over decades of painstaking production and reproduction.

9. Tenmoya Hisashi “Japanese Spirit No. 14”

Tenmyoya Hisashi is a contemporary Japanese artist who is known for his neo-nihonga paintings. He took part in the revival old tradition Japanese painting, which is the complete opposite of modern Japanese painting. In 2000 he also created his new style butouha, who demonstrates a strong attitude towards authority artistic system through his paintings. "Japanese Spirit No. 14" was created as part of artistic scheme"BASARA", interpreted in Japanese culture as the rebellious behavior of the lower aristocracy during the Warring States period to deprive the authorities of the ability to achieve ideal image life, dressing in lush and luxurious clothes and acting out of free will, not in accordance with their social class.

10. Katsushika Hokusai “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”

Finally, " Big wave in Kanagawa" is probably the most recognizable japanese painting ever written. This is actually the most famous work art created in Japan. It depicts huge waves threatening boats off the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture. Although sometimes mistaken for a tsunami, the wave, as the painting's title suggests, is most likely simply abnormally high. The painting is made in the ukiyo-e tradition.