GIRL WITH PIPE by UTAMARO serigraph print

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) is one of the great Japanese artists during the golden age of ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking. His designs often depicted geisha girls in their "floating world." The "floating world" referred to the licensed brothel and theatre districts of Japan's major cities during the Edo period (1600-1867). The process of creating woodblock prints was collaborative: the artist would draw the design in ink; the carver would transfer the illustration onto a flat block of wood and then carve away all the wood except the lines or areas to be printed (each color required a separate block of wood); the printer would then register and print each color one by one. This all required exceptional craftsmanship at every level, producing some of the most beautiful prints produced by human hands. 

This image is a perfect example of the subtle excellence of their craftsmanship: notice how the girl's face is illustrated with a medium grey line while her hair and eyes are jet black, all perfectly registered. The subtlety of color and how well its utilized, the excellence of composition, the fluid beauty of Utamaro's line work, it all comes together to make an incredible portrait of a geisha girl with pipe. 

Woodblock prints are actually perfectly suited to be translated into serigraphs (screen prints) and I have recreated this image as a 10 color serigraph edition. The paper is a cream BFK Rives archival paper which is 22" x 30". The image is 14.5" x 21.5". Each print is titled and numbered in pencil. There are 80 prints in this edition. Each print is unconditionally guaranteed for your complete satisfaction. Alex Wood