Hanga
Illustration of a two-story house with a wrap-around porch, wooden railings, and stairs leading up to the front door, surrounded by greenery and a tall plant on the left. by Charles Spitzack — Japanese woodblock print

Illustration of a two-story house with a wrap-around porch, wooden railings, and stairs leading up to the front door, surrounded by greenery and a tall plant on the left.

by Charles Spitzack

Description

This print depicts a vernacular American residence rendered in mokuhanga. The composition centers on a two-story dwelling with a wrap-around porch, wooden railings, and a staircase ascending to the entrance, with a tall plant flanking the left edge and surrounding greenery framing the structure. The flat color planes typical of mokuhanga suit the geometric clarity of porch posts, balustrades, and clapboard siding. The medium's reliance on multiple block impressions registered through kento marks allows for distinct color zones — foliage greens, structural whites, shadow tones — without the painterly blending of Western relief printmaking. The choice of an everyday domestic subject reflects a recurring concern in Spitzack's practice: the observation of American residential architecture through the Japanese water-based woodblock tradition. The print sits within his broader interest in translating American vernacular subjects into a medium developed during the Edo period for ukiyo-e and meisho-e (famous places) imagery, here recasting an unremarkable suburban facade as a subject for contemporary mokuhanga.

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Illustration of a two-story house with a wrap-around porch, wooden railings, and stairs leading up to the front door, surrounded by greenery and a tall plant on the left. was created by Charles Spitzack.