Old Town on a Wintry Night (guzhen xueye)
by Paul Binnie
- Date:
- 1998
- Medium:
- Woodcut printed with oil-based ink
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
A 1998 woodcut printed with oil-based ink, depicting an old town blanketed in snow on a winter night. The Chinese title "guzhen xueye" confirms the scene's setting in a traditional Chinese town, its tiled roofs and narrow lanes transformed by darkness and snowfall into a study in silence and monochrome. An Bin's use of oil-based ink rather than the water-based pigments of traditional mokuhanga gives the print a different material quality, with denser blacks and sharper contrasts suited to the nocturnal subject. The 1998 date places this work in the contemporary era, where woodcut artists freely adapt traditional formats to new materials and cross-cultural subjects.
More Prints by Paul Binnie
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Frequently Asked Questions
Old Town on a Wintry Night (guzhen xueye) was created by Paul Binnie in 1998.
Old Town on a Wintry Night (guzhen xueye) depicts urban scenes and night scenes.