The British Museum have announced details for its upcoming new exhibition, on display from the 1st May until the 7th September.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
This new exhibition, which is heading to the British Museum this Spring, is set to celebrate the life, work, and legacy of Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), one of Japan’s most popular and prolific artists.
Hiroshige is renowned for his depictions landscape, nature and daily life in Japan and continues to inspire artists to this day. This will be the first display of his work in the UK for quarter of a century, and the first ever at the British Museum.
Exploring the artist’s legacy through his prints, paintings, books and sketches, the display will include many prints that have never been shown before. The exhibition also marks s a major gift of 35 Hiroshige prints to the American Friends of the British Museum from the collection of Alan Medaugh, a leading US collector of the artist’s work.
Utagawa Hiroshige’s 40-year career coincided with the last decades of Japan’s Edo period (1615–1868), a time of rapid change presaging the end of samurai rule. From fashionable figures in his early career, to quiet city views, remote landscapes and impressions of nature in his mature years, Hiroshige captured many aspects of life in contemporary Japan.
The exhibition will display Hiroshige’s bird-and-flower prints produced throughout his career which reflect both his natural artistic elegance and the relatively high level of literacy reached during the period, as they often include a Japanese or Chinese poem inscribed in flowing calligraphy.
Meanwhile, as well as highlighting Hiroshige’s diverse strengths, this exhibition considers his global legacy and how his innovative compositions, vibrant colours and deep understanding of pictorial perspective have inspired European masters such as Van Gogh and Whistler, as well as contemporary artists worldwide, including Julian Opie.
To find out more visit: https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hiroshige-artist-open-road