Tulips by Eva Pietzcker - Davidson Galleries

Tulips is a botanical study within Pietzcker's broader practice, taking up a flower historically associated with Northern European still life rather than with classical Japanese [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e), where peonies, irises, and chrysanthemums dominate. The print likely arranges several blossoms on their stems against a plain or graded ground, allowing the distinctive cup shape of the tulip to register clearly through carved outline and color blocks. Mokuhanga handles such subjects through registration of multiple blocks, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) applied to petals to suggest the gradation of color from base to tip that gardeners prize in the species. Pietzcker's choice of tulips over more conventionally Japanese flora reflects the contemporary mokuhanga movement's adaptation of the technique to subjects from the printmaker's own surroundings rather than imitation of historical Japanese imagery. The print belongs alongside other floral and still life pieces in her catalog and demonstrates how a Berlin-based artist trained in the medium during the early 2000s carries the technical tradition into a different cultural and botanical context.