Kobayashi Kiyochika: Bridging East and West

Check out the Gallery of Asian and Ancient Western Art, second floor, Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington this week.

Featured is the work of Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915), a Japanese artist who produced woodblock prints during the Meiji period (1868–1912), a time of increased economic and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Although Kiyochika was largely self-taught, evidence suggests that he studied not only with masters of traditional Japanese painting, but also with the English news illustrator Charles Wirgman (1832–1891).

Kiyochika successfully bridged eastern and western artistic approaches by fusing the schematic, linear designs associated with traditional Japanese art with western conventions of depth and shading. This installation was organized by Liz McGoey, Art History graduate student in the Henry Hope School of Fine Arts.