A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties: First Night (Azuma nishiki bijin awase: Shoya)
by Paul Binnie
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Scholten Japanese Art
by Paul Binnie
$2,000–$15,000. Beauty prints by this artist are particularly sought after. Good landscapes and figures: $5,000–$10,000. Key value factors: As a living artist continuing the shin-hanga tradition, Binnie's prints are investment-quality. Limited editions and larger formats are most valued.
From Binnie's Eastern Brocade Beauties series (Azuma nishiki bijin awase), "First Night" evokes the charged atmosphere of a new relationship's beginning — the excitement and vulnerability of a first shared night. The series title echoes the great bijin contest prints of Utamaro and his contemporaries, but Binnie's version is entirely his own: the composition rendered in contemporary [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) style, the emotional register contemporary despite the traditional vocabulary. The Eastern brocade of the title suggests the richness of the sensory and emotional world the series depicts.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties: First Night (Azuma nishiki bijin awase: Shoya) was created by Paul Binnie.
A Collection of Eastern Brocade Beauties: First Night (Azuma nishiki bijin awase: Shoya) depicts bijin-ga and night scenes.
