$500–$4,000. Common prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Matsubara's bold black-and-white prints are distinctive and sought after. Larger formats command premiums.
Dated 1966 in the Showa period, this woodblock print depicts a waterfall, one of the most dramatic natural subjects available to the printmaker. Waterfalls have been a staple of Japanese art from Hokusai's celebrated series to Hiroshige's landscape prints, and Matsubara enters this tradition with her own visual vocabulary. The vertical plunge of water offered a natural compositional structure for a print, with the falling stream dominating the frame and the surrounding rock and vegetation serving as a frame within the frame. Matsubara's carved lines must negotiate the contradiction of depicting constant motion in a fixed medium, using the direction and energy of her gouge strokes to suggest the downward rush of water. The mokuhanga technique's water-based pigments create a material resonance between the medium and its subject.
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.
Waterfall, Shôwa period, dated 1966 was created by Naoko Matsubara (松原直子).
Waterfall, Shôwa period, dated 1966 depicts landscapes, waterfalls, and rivers & lakes.
