TotalCount
by Bertha Lum
- Date:
- 1933
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- robynbuntin
by Bertha Lum
$1,000–$8,000. Common subjects: $1,000–$2,500. Key value factors: Bertha Lum's status as a pioneering Western woodblock printmaker gives her work historical value. Her Art Nouveau-influenced prints are particularly sought after.
This 1933 oban-format woodblock print bears an unusual title — "TotalCount" — that may reference a catalog designation, inventory number, or a thematic concept rather than a depicted subject. The 1933 date places it during Lum's later career, when she was based in Beijing and traveling through Southeast Asia, producing prints inspired by Chinese, Javanese, and Balinese subjects. By this point, Lum had been working in the woodblock medium for three decades and had developed a personal vocabulary that synthesized Japanese technique with multicultural subject matter. Whatever the title's origin, the print represents the work of an artist at full maturity, confident in her craft and drawing on a lifetime of cross-cultural observation and artistic production.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
TotalCount was created by Bertha Lum in 1933.
TotalCount depicts landscapes.
