Utamaro

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Utamaro

Utamaro (Kitagawa Utamaro) (kētäˈgäwä o͞otäˈmäro), 1753–1806, Japanese color-print artist, best known for his portrayals of women. Although he enjoyed enormous success during his lifetime, not much is known about his life except that he was imprisoned for a short time when his prints were supposed to have offended the Tokugawa government. His were among the first Japanese prints to become familiar in the West, as they were especially popular with the Dutch exporters of Nagasaki. Following Kiyonaga, Utamaro depicted women in an idealized manner, accenting sensuous beauty. His book of Insects (1788) reveals a keen observation of nature. His draftsmanship and use of color (especially reds and black) show a striking originality that made him the first of the greater masters of the ukiyo-e school. The New York Public Library has a collection of 133 of his prints.

Utamaro

Kitagawa , original name Kitagawa Nebsuyoshi. 1753--1806, Japanese master of wood-block prints, of the ukiyo-e school; noted esp for his portraits of women

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

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Subject matter aside, the compositions of Kitagawa Utamaro are masterly, and it is Katsushika Hokusai who provides us with the lascivious octopus.

Sex sells erotic art in London: the Barbican's 'Seduced' exhibition wrenches the fig-leaf off works of art from ancient Rome to the present day. Huw Lewis-Jones explores the boundaries beween eroticism and pornography

Seventy works are portrayed in color plates; one book, Kitagawa Utamaro's Shiohi no tsuto (1789) is reproduced in full.

Ehon; the artist and the book in Japan

The paintings and prints of beautiful women created by Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) and Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) represent the pinnacle of ukiyo-e.

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But Kitagawa Utamaro, the Japanese printmaker of genius, adored pretty women centuries before Richard Gere was chasing them in the movies.

Mirror mirror, paint a picture of beauty; Japanese artist Utamaro adored pretty women long before Richard Gere says Richard Edmonds

Ikon Gallery, Oozells Square, Brindley Place, Birmingham: Kitagawa Utamaro -survey of woodblock prints, mainly images of women, by 18th century Japanese artist from the British Museum collection.

FORSS OF NATURE; Art

WOMEN DRESSING THEIR HAIR BY KITAGAWA UTAMARO (1754-1806), 1790S Oban, colour woodblock print, 38.1 x 25.4 cm.

6,000 years of Asia's art: to mark the 40th anniversary of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, its curators present a selection of recent acquisitions by the museum, one of the world's greatest and most diverse collections of the continent's art. They range in time from remote antiquity to work by cutting-edge contemporary artists

Woodblock prints by such masters as Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai provided unprecedented views of traditional ukivo-e, scenes of the floating world (everyday life).