Torn Calendar
- Date:
- 1941
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
$1,500–$10,000. Common prints: $1,500–$3,000. Key value factors: Settai's literary elegance and refined technique have a niche but devoted following among collectors of Japanese aestheticism.
A torn calendar page provides the unexpected subject of this 1941 oban woodblock print, transforming an object of mundane utility into an image of artistic contemplation. Komura Settai's choice of subject reflects the still-life tradition's interest in humble, overlooked things, as well as a specifically Japanese awareness of time's passage embedded in the discarded page. The torn edge introduces an element of chance and imperfection into the otherwise controlled woodblock surface, a visual tension between the precise carved lines and the irregular rip. Settai's training as a graphic designer and book illustrator made him acutely sensitive to the aesthetics of printed paper, and this print reads as both a meditation on time and a self-aware commentary on the printed object itself.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Torn Calendar was created by Komura Settai (小村雪岱) in 1941.
Torn Calendar was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1941).
Torn Calendar depicts still life and daily life.
