June 24 – June 30, 2021

Vernissage: June 24 (Thursday), from 4 p.m until 7 p.m.

Japonism is a specific term that serves to name the an important phenomenon that manifested itself vividly and marked the development of Western European art. It is about the process by which Japanese art exerts influence on the art of Europe in the second half of the XIX century. We can see reflections of it in the work of artists such as impressionists Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, of post-impressionists like Van Gogh, of modernists like Toulouse-Lautrec. One of the main reasons for this is the art of Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking, which does not not only gained popularity in her homeland, but also began to “travel” around the world, revealing hitherto unknown fragments of the imaginary world of the far Land of the Rising Sun.

The word ukiyo-e serves not to denote the technique of performance of this kind of graphic imprint, but its thematic scope and stylistic features. IN translation the word is understood as “life here and now” or said in sync with the European way of perceiving the world – pictures from everyday life. The first ones ukiyo-e engravings belong to Hishikawa Moronobu (1618 – 1694) and if before his appearance Japanese engraving serves above all to reflect the religious scenes and ritual experience, with the work of Moronobu – in the foreground there is the everyday with its ordinariness, repeatability, intimacy.  In other words, with ukiyo-e engravings lay the foundations of secular art in Japan. They become extraordinary popular, and just like the Bulgarian revival print they are gaining mass, begin to be present in every home, and every traveler through these distant exotic lands he takes with him a sheet of ukiyo-e. That’s the way to go similar engravings reached Europe and impressed many with their imagery artists. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, ukiyo-e engravings became the object of collecting.

Technologically speaking, Japanese ukiyo-e engraving can be monochrome or color. According to experts, one of the most striking distinguishing features of Japanese engraving is the extremely subtle transitions from light to dark. This rich nuance is called bokashi and is used above all in the depiction of the sky and water, and it is based on the use of water-soluble pigments, in which the color saturation is very easily adjusted. Even more so when the colors are applied not with a roller, as is characteristic of European engraving, but with fine brushes, allowing a much finer development of the individual plans in the composition and details.

Ukiyo-e engravings are also preserved in Bulgaria today. Unfortunately they remain relatively unknown to the Bulgarian public, and the basis of this is above all the lack of researchers of this type of graphics. However, they also arouse collector’s interest among Bulgarian art admirers. The exhibition “Into the Magical World of Ukiyo-e” is an attempt to make the knowledge of Ukiyo-e be brought to a wider audience. Bring to live meetings with graphics prints that convey in images the knowledge of a distant and exotic sensitivity and attitude to the world. To bring the audience closer to Japan, hers manners and millennial cultural traditions.

And on Saturday, June 26 at 10 a.m., the gallery will also printmaking workshops and a lecture where art lovers will be able to hear interesting details about the restoration of the infamous Japanese paper, as well as more interesting facts about the historical development of ukiyo-e and about the greats Japanese artists devoted their lives to ukiyo-e.

The exhibition is realized from the “Grafikart” gallery and is part of the educational project “The Art of graphics – traditions and modernity”, financed by the Ministry of Culture.

Events are held in compliance with all anti-epidemic measures and controlled access.