Everything was Alive Here (Koko dewa subete no mono ga ikite ita) A
- Date:
- 1957
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
$400–$3,000. Common prints: $400–$1,000. Key value factors: Shinagawa's long career (he lived to 101) produced a substantial body of work. Quality abstract prints are most collected.
This 1957 color woodblock print carries a title of sweeping vitality, its Japanese subtitle Koko dewa subete no mono ga ikite ita declaring that everything in a particular place was alive. The "A" suffix suggests this is the first in a multi-part exploration of the theme. Shinagawa, working within the sosaku-hanga tradition of complete artistic autonomy, responds to the idea of universal vitality through forms that blur the boundary between animate and inanimate. Rocks, plants, water, and air might all receive equal energetic treatment, their surfaces pulsing with the same carved line quality. The title's past tense introduces a note of elegy: everything was alive here, implying that this state of aliveness has passed or been lost. Created in the mid-1950s, the print may reflect postwar Japan's complex relationship with landscape and the natural world.
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.
Everything was Alive Here (Koko dewa subete no mono ga ikite ita) A was created by Takumi Shinagawa (品川工) in 1957.
Everything was Alive Here (Koko dewa subete no mono ga ikite ita) A depicts landscapes and abstract.
