Head of a Woman
- Date:
- 20th century
- 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 color woodblock print presents a female portrait reduced to the essential form of the head, stripped of narrative context or identifying attributes. Shinagawa's woman exists as a study in form, expression, and the particular qualities that the woodblock medium brings to portraiture. The carved line, which must be planned and cut rather than spontaneously drawn, gives the facial features a deliberate, constructed quality that differs from painted or drawn portraits. Shinagawa likely employs bold color areas and simplified contours, treating the face as a composition of interlocking shapes rather than a photographic likeness. The title's clinical phrasing, "Head of a Woman" rather than a name or descriptive term, signals an art-historical rather than personal relationship between artist and subject, placing the work in dialogue with the long tradition of head studies in Western and Japanese art.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Head of a Woman was created by Takumi Shinagawa (品川工) in 20th century.
Head of a Woman depicts portraits.
