Thanks to Jason Kottke I happened across the exquisite Japanese woodblock prints produced by David Bull.
Unusually he doesn’t sell individual prints instead he insists that you subscribe to a series of prints which he will the despatch to you on a regular basis throughout the year. He explains why here.
This year’s subscription is
The ‘Hanga Treasure Chest’, a series of 24 smaller prints at what I think is a very reasonable price.
For many years now I have made my new year card prints in the Japanese postcard size. Many of my collectors and fans have urged me to make ‘more’ of this type of print, and I think it’s time to oblige!
The ‘Hanga Treasure Chest’ is a set of 24 woodblock prints of that size and general type which will be issued throughout 2005 at the rate of a new one every two weeks. Subscribers to the set will receive (together with the first print, and at no extra charge) an attractive storage box. The prints are mounted on cards, and enclosed by a paper wrapper that also contains a short descriptive explanatory piece … ready to slip into the box for safe-keeping.
David Bull is not without his detractors though including those who accuse him of grave-robbing for producing prints of classical Japanese artworks.
If you don’t have anything to say to the world as an artist on your own merit then maybe you should wait until you do instead of pawning off beautiful, old prints as your own just because the original artists can’t defend their right to it.
Would the writer of this email accuse the director of a production of Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet of the same crime?
Should Shakespeare’s plays be put aside and left to their own time?
New artistic works are invariably built upon the artistic works of the past in some form or another even if the links are too insubstantial to recognize. In addition if classic works are not republished or reintepreted then they get lost to history and our culture is worse off.
Without David Bull to reproduce these great Japanese works of the past then many would never get to see them.
Tags: art
