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101-438: The Pulitzer Arts Foundation was established in 2001 by Emily Rauh Pulitzer, who—together with her husband Joseph Pulitzer Jr. —had originally sought to create a space in which to install works from their private collection. The Pulitzers commissioned Tadao Ando in the early 1990s to renovate an abandoned automobile factory and showroom in midtown St. Louis, which had been an entertainment district known as Grand Center (now known as

202-515: A St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performance of the U.S. premiere of John Cage ’s “Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras,” a work which the Los Angeles Times referred to as “the most significant American orchestral work never played in America.” The Pulitzer has organized the debut of a number of public performances through commissions and residencies, including new poetry by Claudia Rankine (2014) and

303-399: A commission by artist-architects Amanda Williams and Andres L. Hernandez that resulted in a multiphase project evaluating the life cycle of a building. 38°38′25″N 90°14′04″W  /  38.6404°N 90.2344°W  / 38.6404; -90.2344 Joseph Pulitzer Jr. Joseph Pulitzer III (May 13, 1913 – May 26, 1993) was an American newspaperman and publisher of

404-481: A creative end in itself, and did not restrict their print media to the woodblock of traditional ukiyo-e. Prints from the late-20th and 21st centuries have evolved from the concerns of earlier movements, especially the sōsaku-hanga movement's emphasis on individual expression. Screen printing , etching , mezzotint , mixed media , and other Western methods have joined traditional woodcutting amongst printmakers' techniques. Early ukiyo-e artists brought with them

505-458: A dozen separate blocks to handle the different colours and half-tones. His restrained, graceful prints invoked the classicism of waka poetry and Yamato-e painting. The prolific Harunobu was the dominant ukiyo-e artist of his time. The success of Harunobu's colourful nishiki-e from 1765 on led to a steep decline in demand for the limited palettes of benizuri-e and urushi-e , as well as hand-coloured prints. A trend against

606-619: A gift of 31 major works of modern and contemporary art and $ 45 million to the Harvard Art Museum . In announcing the gift, the museum also announced that between 1953 and 2005 it had received gifts of 43 other modern and contemporary works from Pulitzer and his first wife, Louise Vauclain Pulitzer, who died in 1968, and from Pulitzer and his second wife. Pulitzer died at his home in the Central West End of St. Louis from colon cancer . He

707-411: A greater level of realism into his prints that emphasized the differences between the actor and the portrayed character. The expressive, contorted faces he depicted contrasted sharply with the serene, mask-like faces more common to artists such as Harunobu or Utamaro. Published by Tsutaya, Sharaku's work found resistance, and in 1795 his output ceased as mysteriously as it had appeared; his real identity

808-502: A joint project with the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis . The first iteration of PXSTL, created by Freecell Architecture and titled Lots , transformed an empty lot across from the Pulitzer into a site for community activity and public access to the arts, including dance, music, photography, food, and meditation. The second iteration of PXSTL was

909-461: A long depression. These popular colour prints came to be called nishiki-e , or 'brocade pictures', as their brilliant colours seemed to bear resemblance to imported Chinese Shuchiang brocades , known in Japanese as Shokkō nishiki . The first to emerge were expensive calendar prints, printed with multiple blocks on very fine (or finer than standard) paper with heavy, opaque inks. These prints had

1010-626: A long history preceding these late-era masters. The Japanese landscape differed from the Western tradition in that it relied more heavily on imagination, composition, and atmosphere than on strict observance of nature. The self-proclaimed "mad painter" Hokusai (1760–1849) enjoyed a long, varied career. His work is marked by a lack of the sentimentality common to ukiyo-e, and a focus on formalism influenced by Western art. Among his accomplishments are his illustrations of Takizawa Bakin 's novel Crescent Moon  [ ja ] , his series of sketchbooks,

1111-579: A painter of the Kanō school, in the 1870s Chikanobu (1838–1912) turned to prints, particularly of the imperial family and scenes of Western influence on Japanese life in the Meiji period. Aside from Dutch traders, who had had trading relations dating to the beginning of the Edo period, Westerners paid little notice to Japanese art before the mid-19th century, and when they did they rarely distinguished it from other art from

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1212-567: A particular influence on graphic designers and poster makers. Toulouse-Lautrec 's lithographs displayed his interest not only in ukiyo-e's flat colours and outlined forms, but also in their subject matter: performers and prostitutes. He signed much of this work with his initials in a circle, imitating the seals on Japanese prints. Other artists of the time who drew influence from ukiyo-e include Monet , La Farge , Gauguin , and Les Nabis members such as Bonnard and Vuillard . French composer Claude Debussy drew inspiration for his music from

1313-527: A refined sense to his portraits of graceful, slender courtesans, and left behind a number of noted students. With a fine line, Eishōsai Chōki ( fl. 1786–1808) designed portraits of delicate courtesans. The Utagawa school came to dominate ukiyo-e output in the late Edo period. Edo was the primary centre of ukiyo-e production throughout the Edo period. Another major centre developed in the Kamigata region of areas in and around Kyoto and Osaka . In contrast to

1414-399: A remnant of an obsolescent era. Artists continued to produce occasional notable works, but by the 1890s the tradition was moribund. Synthetic pigments imported from Germany began to replace traditional organic ones in the mid-19th century. Many prints from this era made extensive use of a bright red, and were called aka-e ('red pictures'). Artists such as Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) led

1515-472: A series. The Hishikawa school attracted a large number of followers, as well as imitators such as Sugimura Jihei , and signalled the beginning of the popularization of a new artform. Torii Kiyonobu I and Kaigetsudō Ando became prominent emulators of Moronobu's style following the master's death, though neither was a member of the Hishikawa school. Both discarded background detail in favour of focus on

1616-470: A sophisticated knowledge of and training in the composition principles of classical Chinese painting ; gradually these artists shed the overt Chinese influence to develop a native Japanese idiom. The early ukiyo-e artists have been called "Primitives" in the sense that the print medium was a new challenge to which they adapted these centuries-old techniques—their image designs are not considered "primitive". Many ukiyo-e artists received training from teachers of

1717-517: A trend in the 1860s of gruesome scenes of murders and ghosts, monsters and supernatural beings, and legendary Japanese and Chinese heroes. His One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885–1892) depicts a variety of fantastic and mundane themes with a moon motif. Kiyochika (1847–1915) is known for his prints documenting the rapid modernization of Tokyo, such as the introduction of railways, and his depictions of Japan's wars with China and with Russia . Earlier

1818-497: A variety of education-oriented projects and events. Additionally, the Pulitzer presents an ongoing collaborative chamber concert series of contemporary music with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra . Concert programs are chosen based on their relationship to the artworks exhibited. A similar collaboration with St. Louis-based music collective Farfetched has yielded a variety of live music performances. In January 2014

1919-427: A very stimulating place, where works of art are not exhibited merely as specimens but can speak to us as living things.” In addition to its curatorial staff and guest curators, the Pulitzer has a history of artist-curated exhibitions, including Blue Black (2017), curated by Glenn Ligon , who was inspired by his initial experience viewing Ellsworth Kelly ’s site-specific sculpture of the same name. Kelly himself curated

2020-454: A video poem by Rankine and filmmaker John Lucas (2016); a sound event by composer David Lang (2015); a residency and performance by interdisciplinary artist Chris Kallmyer (2015); and an iteration of artist Aram Han Sifuentes ’s Protest Banner Lending Library (2018). In 2016 a gallery installation and series of public projects by the German architecture collective raumlaborberlin transplanted

2121-458: Is located in the courtyard to the west of the building. The works by Kelly and Serra were commissioned for the Pulitzer by Emily Rauh Pulitzer and were installed before the building opened. The Pulitzer later acquired a sculpture by artist Scott Burton , Rock Settee , which faces the building’s exterior reflecting pool. Both Kelly and Serra collaborated with Mrs. Pulitzer and Tadao Ando on the installation of their works, of which Ando writes: “Into

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2222-417: Is responsible for selecting the coveted annual prizes in journalism, books, drama and music. In 1993, he received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Washington University in St. Louis . In addition to his reputation as a newsman, Pulitzer was also known for his collection of contemporary art, regarded as one of the largest and finest in the world. In 2008, his second wife, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, gave

2323-500: Is still unknown. Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825) produced kabuki portraits in a style Edo townsfolk found more accessible, emphasizing dramatic postures and avoiding Sharaku's realism. A consistent high level of quality marks ukiyo-e of the late 18th-century, but the works of Utamaro and Sharaku often overshadow those other masters of the era. One of Kiyonaga's followers, Eishi (1756–1829), abandoned his position as painter for shōgun Tokugawa Ieharu to take up ukiyo-e design. He brought

2424-427: Is ukiyo-e; assertions that he was the genre's founder are especially common amongst Japanese researchers. At times Matabei has been credited as the artist of the unsigned Hikone screen , a byōbu folding screen that may be one of the earliest surviving ukiyo-e works. The screen is in a refined Kanō style and depicts contemporary life, rather than the prescribed subjects of the painterly schools. In response to

2525-555: The kanazōshi genre of tales of hedonistic urban life in the new capital. The rebuilding of Edo following the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 occasioned a modernization of the city, and the publication of illustrated printed books flourished in the rapidly urbanizing environment. The term ukiyo ( 浮世 ) , which can be translated as 'floating world', was homophonous with the ancient Buddhist term ukiyo ( 憂き世 ) , meaning 'this world of sorrow and grief'. The newer term at times

2626-430: The chōnin class, who had become wealthy enough to afford to decorate their homes with them. The earliest ukiyo-e works emerged in the 1670s, with Hishikawa Moronobu 's paintings and monochromatic prints of beautiful women. Colour prints were introduced gradually, and at first were only used for special commissions. By the 1740s, artists such as Okumura Masanobu used multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour. In

2727-550: The machishū and divided the population into four social classes , with the ruling samurai class at the top and the merchant class at the bottom. While deprived of their political influence, those of the merchant class most benefited from the rapidly expanding economy of the Edo period, and their improved lot allowed for leisure that many sought in the pleasure districts—in particular Yoshiwara in Edo —and collecting artworks to decorate their homes, which in earlier times had been well beyond their financial means. The experience of

2828-457: The Hokusai Manga , and his popularization of the landscape genre with Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji , which includes his best-known print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa , one of the most famous works of Japanese art. In contrast to the work of the older masters, Hokusai's colours were bold, flat, and abstract, and his subject was not the pleasure districts but the lives and environment of

2929-711: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch for 38 years. A grandson of the famous newsman Joseph Pulitzer , for 31 years he chaired the board which was responsible for awarding the Pulitzer Prize , and from 1955 to 1993 was chairman of the Pulitzer Publishing Company . Born in St. Louis, Missouri on May 13, 1913, he was baptized in the Episcopal Church as Joseph Pulitzer III, but later adopted the junior designation (his father had dropped

3030-705: The Akita ranga painters of the 1770s—as were Chinese methods to create a sense of depth using a homogeny of parallel lines. The techniques sometimes appeared together in ukiyo-e works, geometrical perspective providing an illusion of depth in the background and the more expressive Chinese perspective in the fore. The techniques were most likely learned at first through Chinese Western-style paintings rather than directly from Western works. Long after becoming familiar with these techniques, artists continued to harmonize them with traditional methods according to their compositional and expressive needs. Other ways of indicating depth included

3131-637: The Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, which opened Japan to the outside world after over two centuries of seclusion . Ukiyo-e prints were amongst the items he brought back to the United States. Such prints had appeared in Paris from at least the 1830s, and by the 1850s were numerous; reception was mixed, and even when praised ukiyo-e was generally thought inferior to Western works which emphasized mastery of naturalistic perspective and anatomy. Japanese art drew notice at

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3232-486: The Edo period 's chōnin , allied themselves with the court and had power over local communities; their patronage of the arts encouraged a revival in the classical arts in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In the early 17th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) unified the country and was appointed shōgun with supreme power over Japan. He consolidated his government in the village of Edo (modern Tokyo), and required

3333-460: The Ejima-Ikushima scandal of 1714. Kyoto native Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1750) painted technically refined pictures of courtesans. Considered a master of erotic portraits, he was the subject of a government ban in 1722, though it is believed he continued to create works that circulated under different names. Sukenobu spent most of his career in Edo, and his influence was considerable in both

3434-526: The Heian period (794–1185) had followed two principal paths: the nativist Yamato-e tradition, focusing on Japanese themes, best known by the works of the Tosa school ; and Chinese-inspired kara-e in a variety of styles, such as the monochromatic ink wash paintings of Sesshū Tōyō and his disciples. The Kanō school of painting incorporated features of both. Since antiquity, Japanese art had found patrons in

3535-754: The International Exhibition of 1867 in Paris , and became fashionable in France and England in the 1870s and 1880s. The prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige played a prominent role in shaping Western perceptions of Japanese art. At the time of their introduction to the West, woodblock printing was the most common mass medium in Japan, and the Japanese considered it of little lasting value. Early Europeans promoters and scholars of ukiyo-e and Japanese art included writer Edmond de Goncourt and art critic Philippe Burty , who coined

3636-769: The Kansei era (1789–1791). The ukiyo-e of the period of the Kansei Reforms brought about a focus on beauty and harmony that collapsed into decadence and disharmony in the next century as the reforms broke down and tensions rose, culminating in the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Especially in the 1780s, Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815) of the Torii school depicted traditional ukiyo-e subjects like beauties and urban scenes, which he printed on large sheets of paper, often as multiprint horizontal diptychs or triptychs . His works dispensed with

3737-535: The Kantō and Kansai regions . The paintings of Miyagawa Chōshun (1683–1752) portrayed early 18th-century life in delicate colours. Chōshun made no prints. The Miyagawa school he founded in the early-18th century specialized in romantic paintings in a style more refined in line and colour than the Kaigetsudō school. Chōshun allowed greater expressive freedom in his adherents, a group that later included Hokusai . Even in

3838-408: The territorial lords to assemble there in alternate years with their entourages. The demands of the growing capital drew many male labourers from the country, so that males came to make up nearly seventy percent of the population. The village grew during the Edo period (1603–1867) from a population of 1800 to over a million in the 19th century. The centralized shogunate put an end to the power of

3939-399: The 1760s, the success of Suzuki Harunobu 's "brocade prints" led to full-colour production becoming standard, with ten or more blocks used to create each print. Some ukiyo-e artists specialized in making paintings, but most works were prints. Artists rarely carved their own woodblocks for printing; rather, production was divided between the artist, who designed the prints; the carver, who cut

4040-432: The 1770s, Utagawa Toyoharu produced a number of uki-e perspective prints that demonstrated a mastery of Western perspective techniques that had eluded his predecessors in the genre. Toyoharu's works helped pioneer the landscape as an ukiyo-e subject, rather than merely a background for human figures. In the 19th century, Western-style perspective techniques were absorbed into Japanese artistic culture, and deployed in

4141-431: The 20th century there was a revival in Japanese printmaking: the shin-hanga ('new prints') genre capitalized on Western interest in prints of traditional Japanese scenes, and the sōsaku-hanga ('creative prints') movement promoted individualist works designed, carved, and printed by a single artist. Prints since the late 20th century have continued in an individualist vein, often made with techniques imported from

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4242-549: The East. Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg spent a year in the Dutch trading settlement Dejima , near Nagasaki, and was one of the earliest Westerners to collect Japanese prints. The export of ukiyo-e thereafter slowly grew, and at the beginning of the 19th century Dutch merchant-trader Isaac Titsingh 's collection drew the attention of connoisseurs of art in Paris. The arrival in Edo of American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 led to

4343-651: The Grand Center Arts District). During the design phase of the Pulitzer's gallery, Joseph Jr. died from colon cancer, and the project was not realized. Emily Rauh Pulitzer later approached Ando again, and she commissioned the architect's first freestanding public building in the United States. The inaugural exhibition featured a selection of works from the Pulitzers’ private collections, including artwork by Roy Lichtenstein , Claude Monet , Pablo Picasso , Mark Rothko , Kiki Smith , and Andy Warhol . Beginning with

4444-405: The Kanō and other painterly schools. A defining feature of most ukiyo-e prints is a well-defined, bold, flat line. The earliest prints were monochromatic, and these lines were the only printed element; even with the advent of colour this characteristic line continued to dominate. In ukiyo-e composition forms are arranged in flat spaces with figures typically in a single plane of depth. Attention

4545-513: The Meiji era. Following the deaths of Hokusai and Hiroshige and the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e suffered a sharp decline in quantity and quality. The rapid Westernization of the Meiji period that followed saw woodblock printing turn its services to journalism, and face competition from photography. Practitioners of pure ukiyo-e became more rare, and tastes turned away from a genre seen as

4646-722: The Pulitzer are installed without the wall labels to encourage unmediated encounters with art. Completed in October 2001 after four years of construction and nearly ten of planning, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation was the first public building in United States to be designed by architect Tadao Ando , who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995. The building is characterized by Ando's longstanding attention to natural elements such as light and water, as well as his signature use of concrete. The concrete forms that comprise

4747-421: The Pulitzer developed two iterations of Staging : a program that invited homeless veterans and formerly incarcerated individuals into the galleries over several weeks for a program that included theatrical training, employment counseling, and arts education, culminating in a public performance that invited audience members to see the artwork through their eyes and experiences. In 2014, the Pulitzer launched PXSTL,

4848-405: The Pulitzer presented Reset , a week-long programming series that occurred during a period between exhibitions. Beginning with the installation of a site-specific, temporary floor and wall sculpture by artist David Scanavino , the programs included a variety of interactive and participatory events including a breakdancing competition, yoga, family activities, and a drag show . Reset also included

4949-549: The Tōkaidō and The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō , the latter a cooperative effort with Eisen. His work was more realistic, subtly coloured, and atmospheric than Hokusai's; nature and the seasons were key elements: mist, rain, snow, and moonlight were prominent parts of his compositions. Hiroshige's followers, including adopted son Hiroshige II and son-in-law Hiroshige III , carried on their master's style of landscapes into

5050-502: The West. Ukiyo-e was central to forming the West's perception of Japanese art in the late 19th century, particularly the landscapes of Hokusai and Hiroshige. From the 1870s onward, Japonisme became a prominent trend and had a strong influence on the early French Impressionists such as Edgar Degas , Édouard Manet and Claude Monet , as well as influencing Post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh , and Art Nouveau artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec . Japanese art since

5151-406: The aristocracy, military governments, and religious authorities. Until the 16th century, the lives of the common people had not been a main subject of painting, and even when they were included, the works were luxury items made for the ruling samurai and rich merchant classes. Later works appeared by and for townspeople, including inexpensive monochromatic paintings of female beauties and scenes of

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5252-404: The beginning of this approach as a movement. The movement favoured individuality in its artists, and as such has no dominant themes or styles. Works ranged from the entirely abstract ones of Kōshirō Onchi (1891–1955) to the traditional figurative depictions of Japanese scenes of Un'ichi Hiratsuka (1895–1997). These artists produced prints not because they hoped to reach a mass audience, but as

5353-490: The building materials from a condemned two-story home on St. Louis's north side into the Pulitzer's main gallery. The Pulitzer has a history of developing projects and programs aimed at engaging local communities and inviting participation from a wide variety of individuals and groups. Working with Prison Performing Arts and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis ,

5454-424: The building were cast on site during a nearly four-year construction period using advanced techniques that were uncommon in America at the time. The building has been described as “both a serene setting for the contemplation of art and a contribution toward revitalizing the urban landscape of historic St. Louis.” In June 2014 the building underwent an expansion project that would renovate storage and office spaces in

5555-455: The common people at work. Established masters Eisen , Kuniyoshi , and Kunisada also followed Hokusai's steps into landscape prints in the 1830s, producing prints with bold compositions and striking effects. Though not often given the attention of their better-known forebears, the Utagawa school produced a few masters in this declining period. The prolific Kunisada (1786–1865) had few rivals in

5656-519: The depiction of courtesans and actors. As a result, many ukiyo-e artists designed travel scenes and pictures of nature, especially birds and flowers. Landscapes had been given limited attention since Moronobu, and they formed an important element in the works of Kiyonaga and Shunchō . It was not until late in the Edo period that landscape came into its own as a genre, especially via the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige The landscape genre has come to dominate Western perceptions of ukiyo-e, though ukiyo-e had

5757-412: The dominance of Harunobu's idealism by focusing on contemporary urban fashions and celebrated real-world courtesans and geisha . Koryūsai was perhaps the most prolific ukiyo-e artist of the 18th century, and produced a larger number of paintings and print series than any predecessor. The Kitao school that Shigemasa founded was one of the dominant schools of the closing decades of the 18th century. In

5858-400: The earliest beni pink and vegetable green. A great self-promoter, Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764) played a major role during the period of rapid technical development in printing from the late 17th to mid-18th centuries. He established a shop in 1707 and combined elements of the leading contemporary schools in a wide array of genres, though Masanobu himself belonged to no school. Amongst

5959-479: The earliest monochromatic prints and books, colour was added by hand for special commissions. Demand for colour in the early-18th century was met with tan-e prints hand-tinted with orange and sometimes green or yellow. These were followed in the 1720s with a vogue for pink-tinted beni-e and later the lacquer-like ink of the urushi-e . In 1744, the benizuri-e were the first successes in colour printing, using multiple woodblocks—one for each colour,

6060-539: The exhibition Selected Works by Ellsworth Kelly from Saint Louis Collections (2002). Artist Gedi Sibony curated In the Still Epiphany (2012), and artist Ann Hamilton was commissioned by the Pulitzer to create a new work, stylus – a project by ann hamilton (2010–11), which activated the entire building and surrounding grounds. Other notable exhibitions include art that has been under-recognized or rarely exhibited, such as nineteenth-century Japanese ukiyo-e drawings,

6161-472: The existing lower level to create two new public galleries. In consultation with Ando and his office, the Pulitzer increased the public space in the building from 6,800 square feet to roughly 10,400 square feet and reopened on May 1, 2015, with three concurrent solo exhibitions of artists Alexander Calder , Fred Sandback and Richard Tuttle . Pulitzer Arts Foundation is a non-collecting museum that presents temporary art exhibitions, and has been called “one of

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6262-545: The floating world'. In 1603, the city of Edo ( Tokyo ) became the seat of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate . The chōnin class (merchants, craftsmen and workers), positioned at the bottom of the social order , benefited the most from the city's rapid economic growth. They began to indulge in and patronize the entertainment of kabuki theatre, geisha , and courtesans of the pleasure districts . The term ukiyo ('floating world') came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. Printed or painted ukiyo-e works were popular with

6363-499: The following decades, and violators could receive harsh punishments. From 1799 even preliminary drafts required approval. A group of Utagawa-school offenders including Toyokuni had their works repressed in 1801, and Utamaro was imprisoned in 1804 for making prints of 16th-century political and military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi . Utamaro ( c.  1753 –1806) made his name in the 1790s with his bijin ōkubi-e ('large-headed pictures of beautiful women') portraits, focusing on

6464-399: The head and upper torso, a style others had previously employed in portraits of kabuki actors. Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background. Utamaro's individuated beauties were in sharp contrast to the stereotyped, idealized images that had been

6565-556: The human figure—kabuki actors in the yakusha-e of Kiyonobu and the Torii school that followed him, and courtesans in the bijin-ga of Ando and his Kaigetsudō school . Ando and his followers produced a stereotyped female image whose design and pose lent itself to effective mass production, and its popularity created a demand for paintings that other artists and schools took advantage of. The Kaigetsudō school and its popular "Kaigetsudō beauty" ended after Ando's exile over his role in

6666-433: The idealism of the prints of Harunobu and the Torii school grew following Harunobu's death in 1770. Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–1793) and his school produced portraits of kabuki actors with greater fidelity to the actors' actual features than had been the trend. Sometime-collaborators Koryūsai (1735 – c.  1790 ) and Kitao Shigemasa (1739–1820) were prominent depicters of women who also moved ukiyo-e away from

6767-517: The increasing demand for ukiyo-e works, Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) produced the first ukiyo-e woodblock prints. By 1672, Moronobu's success was such that he began to sign his work—the first of the book illustrators to do so. He was a prolific illustrator who worked in a wide variety of genres, and developed an influential style of portraying female beauties. Most significantly, he began to produce illustrations, not just for books, but as single-sheet images, which could stand alone or be used as part of

6868-448: The innovations in his romantic, lyrical images were the introduction of geometrical perspective in the uki-e genre in the 1740s; the long, narrow hashira-e prints; and the combination of graphics and literature in prints that included self-penned haiku poetry. Ukiyo-e reached a peak in the late 18th century with the advent of full-colour prints, developed after Edo returned to prosperity under Tanuma Okitsugu following

6969-575: The junior designation after the death of his father). A graduate of the St. Mark's School and Harvard University , Pulitzer ran the St. Louis Post-Dispatch through the social and political challenges of the 20th century while holding fast to the liberal vision set out by his grandfather in 1907. His paper was among the first to oppose the Vietnam War . He served as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University for 31 years and

7070-484: The late 18th century. The 19th century also saw the continuation of masters of the ukiyo-e tradition, with the creation of Hokusai 's The Great Wave off Kanagawa , one of the most well-known works of Japanese art, and Hiroshige 's The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō . Following the deaths of these two masters, and against the technological and social modernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e production went into steep decline. However, in

7171-494: The late-period multicolored works of Donald Judd , and the sculptures, photographs, and drawings of the Italian artist Medardo Rosso . Three works of art are permanently on view at the Pulitzer. Ellsworth Kelly ’s Blue Black is a twenty-eight-foot vertical wall sculpture beneath a skylight in the building’s main gallery. Richard Serra ’s Joe is the first in the artist’s series of torqued spirals of Cor-Ten weathering steel, and

7272-720: The linework. The aesthetic of flat areas of colour contrasts with the modulated colours expected in Western traditions and with other prominent contemporary traditions in Japanese art patronized by the upper class, such as in the subtle monochrome ink brushstrokes of zenga brush painting or tonal colours of the Kanō school of painting. The colourful, ostentatious, and complex patterns, concern with changing fashions, and tense, dynamic poses and compositions in ukiyo-e are in striking contrast with many concepts in traditional Japanese aesthetics . Prominent amongst these, wabi-sabi favours simplicity, asymmetry, and imperfection, with evidence of

7373-431: The loveliest places in the country to look at art.” The inaugural exhibition in 2001 featured works curated exclusively from the Pulitzer private collection. Since then, the museum has presented art from a variety of time periods, disciplines, and collections. The art is often installed in ways that highlight or engage with the architecture of Tadao Ando, who has written that in the design of the Pulitzer, he sought “to create

7474-400: The norm. By the end of the decade, especially following the death of his patron Tsutaya Jūzaburō in 1797, Utamaro's prodigious output declined in quality, and he died in 1806. Appearing suddenly in 1794 and disappearing just as suddenly ten months later, the prints of the enigmatic Sharaku are amongst ukiyo-e's best known. Sharaku produced striking portraits of kabuki actors, introducing

7575-525: The number of days for each month hidden in the design, and were sent at the New Year as personalized greetings, bearing the name of the patron rather than the artist. The blocks for these prints were later re-used for commercial production, obliterating the patron's name and replacing it with that of the artist. The delicate, romantic prints of Suzuki Harunobu (1725–1770) were amongst the first to realize expressive and complex colour designs, printed with up to

7676-488: The passage of time; and shibui values subtlety, humility, and restraint. Ukiyo-e can be less at odds with aesthetic concepts such as the racy, urbane stylishness of iki . Ukiyo-e displays an unusual approach to graphical perspective, one that can appear underdeveloped when compared to European paintings of the same period. Western-style geometrical perspective was known in Japan—practised most prominently by

7777-512: The pleasure quarters was open to those of sufficient wealth, manners, and education. Woodblock printing in Japan traces back to the Hyakumantō Darani in 770 CE. Until the 17th century, such printing was reserved for Buddhist seals and images. Movable type appeared around 1600, but as the Japanese writing system required about 100,000 type pieces, hand-carving text onto woodblocks

7878-422: The poetic dreamscapes made by Harunobu, opting instead for realistic depictions of idealized female forms dressed in the latest fashions and posed in scenic locations. He also produced portraits of kabuki actors in a realistic style that included accompanying musicians and chorus. A law went into effect in 1790 requiring prints to bear a censor's seal of approval to be sold. Censorship increased in strictness over

7979-612: The prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige, most prominently in La mer (1905). Imagist poets such as Amy Lowell and Ezra Pound found inspiration in ukiyo-e prints; Lowell published a book of poetry called Pictures of the Floating World (1919) on oriental themes or in an oriental style. The travel sketchbook became a popular genre beginning about 1905, as the Meiji government promoted travel within Japan to have citizens better know their country. In 1915, publisher Shōzaburō Watanabe introduced

8080-407: The prospect of imminent poverty, buoyant and carefree, like a gourd carried along with the river current: this is what we call ukiyo . The earliest ukiyo-e artists came from the world of Japanese painting . Yamato-e painting of the 17th century had developed a style of outlined forms which allowed inks to be dripped on a wet surface and spread out towards the outlines—this outlining of forms

8181-600: The range of subjects in the Edo prints, those of Kamigata tended to be portraits of kabuki actors. The style of the Kamigata prints was little distinguished from those of Edo until the late 18th century, partly because artists often moved back and forth between the two areas. Colours tend to be softer and pigments thicker in Kamigata prints than in those of Edo. In the 19th century, many of the prints were designed by kabuki fans and other amateurs. The Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843 sought to suppress outward displays of luxury, including

8282-448: The refined landscapes of such artists as Hokusai and Hiroshige , the latter a member of the Utagawa school that Toyoharu founded. This school was to become one of the most influential, and produced works in a far greater variety of genres than any other school. While the late 18th century saw hard economic times, ukiyo-e saw a peak in quantity and quality of works, particularly during

8383-550: The same pair of hands. Kanae Yamamoto (1882–1946), then a student at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts , is credited with the birth of this approach. In 1904, he produced Fisherman using woodblock printing, a technique until then frowned upon by the Japanese art establishment as old-fashioned and for its association with commercial mass production. The foundation of the Japanese Woodcut Artists' Association in 1918 marks

8484-685: The second exhibition, Selected Works by Ellsworth Kelly from St. Louis Collections , the Pulitzer extended the scope of its exhibitions to include works outside of the family's private collection, and this practice has driven nearly all subsequent exhibitions. Operating under the name The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts from 2001 to 2014, the Pulitzer has presented a variety of exhibitions including groups shows of minimalist art , Buddhist art , Old Masters , and contemporary themes, as well as solo exhibitions of Dan Flavin , Ann Hamilton , Gordon Matta-Clark , Richard Serra , Hiroshi Sugimoto , and others. Works at

8585-450: The spaces that I created with form, material, and light, Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra brought their own expression, conceiving a space for art that could exist only there.” The Pulitzer engages in a variety of public programs that directly relate to the exhibition on view or are aligned with ongoing community initiatives. These programs have included music, meditation, symposia, panel discussions, performances, poetry readings, as well as

8686-569: The term shin-hanga ("new prints") to describe a style of prints he published that featured traditional Japanese subject matter and were aimed at foreign and upscale Japanese audiences. Prominent artists included Goyō Hashiguchi , called the "Utamaro of the Taishō period " for his manner of depicting women; Shinsui Itō , who brought more modern sensibilities to images of women; and Hasui Kawase , who made modern landscapes. Watanabe also published works by non-Japanese artists, an early success of which

8787-453: The term Japonism . Stores selling Japanese goods opened, including those of Édouard Desoye in 1862 and art dealer Siegfried Bing in 1875. From 1888 to 1891 Bing published the magazine Artistic Japan in English, French, and German editions, and curated an ukiyo-e exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890 attended by artists such as Mary Cassatt . American Ernest Fenollosa

8888-408: The theatre and pleasure districts. The hand-produced nature of these shikomi-e ( 仕込絵 ) limited the scale of their production, a limit that was soon overcome by genres that turned to mass-produced woodblock printing . During a prolonged period of civil war in the 16th century, a class of politically powerful merchants developed. These machishū  [ ja ] , the predecessors of

8989-760: The time of the early Impressionists . Early painter-collectors incorporated Japanese themes and compositional techniques into their works as early as the 1860s: the patterned wallpapers and rugs in Manet 's paintings were inspired by the patterned kimono found in ukiyo-e pictures, and Whistler focused his attention on ephemeral elements of nature as in ukiyo-e landscapes. Van Gogh was an avid collector, and painted copies in oil of prints by Hiroshige and Eisen . Degas and Cassatt depicted fleeting, everyday moments in Japanese-influenced compositions and perspectives. ukiyo-e's flat perspective and unmodulated colours were

9090-512: The tradition of making portrait prints of courtesans and actors. One of those rivals was Eisen (1790–1848), who was also adept at landscapes. Perhaps the last significant member of this late period, Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) tried his hand at a variety of themes and styles, much as Hokusai had. His historical scenes of warriors in violent combat were popular, especially his series of heroes from the Suikoden (1827–1830) and Chūshingura (1847). He

9191-469: The woodblocks; the printer, who inked and pressed the woodblocks onto handmade paper ; and the publisher, who financed, promoted, and distributed the works. As printing was done by hand, printers were able to achieve effects impractical with machines, such as the blending or gradation of colours on the printing block. Specialists have prized the portraits of beauties and actors by masters such as Torii Kiyonaga , Utamaro , and Sharaku that were created in

9292-419: Was 80. Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna ; and erotica . The term ukiyo-e ( 浮世絵 ) translates as 'picture[s] of

9393-492: Was a prominent Paris-based dealer of respected tastes whose Tokyo office was responsible for evaluating and exporting large quantities of ukiyo-e prints to the West in such quantities that Japanese critics later accused him of siphoning Japan of its national treasure. The drain first went unnoticed in Japan, as Japanese artists were immersing themselves in the classical painting techniques of the West. Japanese art, and particularly ukiyo-e prints, came to influence Western art from

9494-480: Was a set of Indian- and Japanese-themed prints in 1916 by the English Charles W. Bartlett (1860–1940). Other publishers followed Watanabe's success, and some shin-hanga artists such as Goyō and Hiroshi Yoshida set up studios to publish their own work. Artists of the sōsaku-hanga ('creative prints') movement took control of every aspect of the printmaking process—design, carving, and printing were by

9595-461: Was adept at landscapes and satirical scenes—the latter an area rarely explored in the dictatorial atmosphere of the Edo period; that Kuniyoshia could dare tackle such subjects was a sign of the weakening of the shogunate at the time. Hiroshige (1797–1858) is considered Hokusai's greatest rival in stature. He specialized in pictures of birds and flowers, and serene landscapes, and is best known for his travel series, such as The Fifty-three Stations of

9696-406: Was drawn to vertical and horizontal relationships, as well as details such as lines, shapes, and patterns such as those on clothing. Compositions were often asymmetrical, and the viewpoint was often from unusual angles, such as from above. Elements of images were often cropped , giving the composition a spontaneous feel. In colour prints, contours of most colour areas are sharply defined, usually by

9797-535: Was more efficient. In Saga, Kyoto  [ ja ] , calligrapher Hon'ami Kōetsu and publisher Suminokura Soan  [ ja ] combined printed text and images in an adaptation of The Tales of Ise (1608) and other works of literature. During the Kan'ei era (1624–1643) illustrated books of folk tales called tanrokubon ('orange-green books') were the first books mass-produced using woodblock printing. Woodblock imagery continued to evolve as illustrations to

9898-594: Was the earliest Western devotee of Japanese culture, and did much to promote Japanese art—Hokusai's works featured prominently at his inaugural exhibition as first curator of Japanese art Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and in Tokyo in 1898 he curated the first ukiyo-e exhibition in Japan. By the end of the 19th century, the popularity of ukiyo-e in the West drove prices beyond the means of most collectors—some, such as Degas , traded their own paintings for such prints. Tadamasa Hayashi

9999-508: Was the last member of the Pulitzer family to directly participate in the Prize process to date. Along with Columbia University president William J. McGill and Pulitzer Prize administrator John Hohenberg , he oversaw its transition from an advisory group under the aegis of the Columbia trustees to the principal award-granting body in 1975. The board, which had been established by his grandfather's will,

10100-468: Was to become the dominant style of ukiyo-e. Around 1661, painted hanging scrolls known as Portraits of Kanbun Beauties gained popularity. The paintings of the Kanbun era (1661–1673), most of which are anonymous, marked the beginnings of ukiyo-e as an independent school. The paintings of Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650) have a great affinity with ukiyo-e paintings. Scholars disagree whether Matabei's work itself

10201-454: Was used to mean 'erotic' or 'stylish', among other meanings, and came to describe the hedonistic spirit of the time for the lower classes. Asai Ryōi celebrated this spirit in the novel Ukiyo Monogatari ( Tales of the Floating World , c.  1661 ): [L]iving only for the moment, savouring the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms, and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking sake, and diverting oneself just in floating, unconcerned by

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