Featured Masters of the Woodblock: Important Japanese Prints-Sotheby's

If You want to study what expensive (10K-200K+) Japanese Woodblock Prints look like when You find a pile of them in a dusty corner of 'Granny's Junktiques',check out this auction-
'Masters of the Woodblock: Important Japanese Prints'-Sotheby's London (Auction begins closing in approx 17 hrs.

 

Had to go look. Recognized some of those right off, by the style if not the image itself. The fun part is figuring out first state vs repop for Hiroshige. They kept producing the images for quite a while.

 

They did indeed.There is a great Video on Hokausai's 'The Great Wave',where the Curator of (Smithsonian,Art Institute Chicago,The Met ?), compares her museums print to 5-10 other museums.Original 1st state blocks were repaired,reworked,etc.The piece may have been in continuous production (as orig woodblock prints) for decades,and I think many originals were simply tacked to walls.Kind of like buying a pamphlet or broadside for a few pennies of 'Hamlet' as you were leaving the Globe Theater in the early 1600's.

 

Pretty much. Legit old concert posters usually have tack or tape marks too, where they were put on walls or taped up in dorms. Usually the first sign of a repro when they don't.

 

I had 2 first printings of The Grateful Dead FD-26 Poster (the 'Skull & Roses' concert poster).The one I loaned to my buddy (long story) was dead mint-I bought it at The Psychedelic Shop on Haight St in 1966.His Mom (long story,etc) saw it and promptly threw it into a lit fireplace,she deemed it 'satanic'.
The other first I have is B- condition.I lived 50 minutes from San Francisco in the 60's and went to a fair amount of concerts,and saw the posters nailed and stapled to telephone poles.
That old time machine we call the brain.

 

Meanwhile, I bought my teenaged niece an Ozzfest t-shirt. The bands on the shirt use some imagery your buddy's mother wouldn't have liked, but some of the music itself is pretty cool.

 

v Ozzie's a trip ! I was a Hendrix dude when Sabbath had their first album-listen to it now it's great.Ozzie/Randy were most prophetic were they recorded 'Crazy Train',hope Oz get's thru his neck surgery OK.
-watch his kid on the 'ghostie' shows.
...which as a senior i now find the next life intriguing.

 

I ghost the haunted house shows. I already know where I'm going. Crazy Train rocks, and rocks hard.

 

Randy Rhoads is still out there rockin' the cosmos.

 

@bosko69
Thank you for this! I love Japanese block prints.
I have two of them, and I've been reading as much as I can to learn more.
Also, I saw Ozzy/Randy- Blizzard of Oz tour,
Pittsburgh, August 1981

 

What a strange combination of topics this thread is. Love it!

... I see Hiroshige more at the Dead show than going to see Ozzie or Black Sabbath.

 

Bless Hiroshige (he called himself 'The old man mad for drawing'),He said-
“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress.
At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvellous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign myself ‘The Old Man Mad About Drawing’.”
...this man was an artist,nothing more,nothing less. He was of course relatively poor for most of His life.
This is the Vow that many ancient Monks & Artists expected-a life sworn to God,Art and poverty.
-not many youtube /tech sensations then .
To find an original first pull/first block pressing by the Maestro will be difficult,but what gift is not.The easy inherited/accidental treasure is welcome in this material world and much needed to keep flesh on bone.
The earned treasure is much multiplied by research,labor and the epiphany of attaining said goal.
I've inherited and been gifted some very fine things,but the labor & reward of a serious discovery earned via research (whether monetary or not),is in many ways more rewarding than a large check.
I don't suggest we all should start learning to live off air,our mortal plain's damned expensive !
Only saying that we're all Explorers,as we we're when we were kids,and should try to remain til our last breath.

 

Ozzy might like this one by Hokusai

 

It was Katsushika Hokusai, not Hiroshige who said that.

 

Thanks for the correction JayBee.IMHO nobody portrays Ghosts better than the Japanese (although some Tibetan and Taino imagery can also be rather eerie).

 

I can see some metalhead using that on a concet T, easily.