Matt Brown
Fine Art, LLC

We pursue one exception to our rule of residency.  This is an offering of kabuki actor prints by the Japanese print designer Utagawa Kunisada (1789 - 1865).   Our focus is print designs Kunisada made in the 1850's, just before and after the opening of Japan to the West (1853).

Why Kunisada?  This gallery is owned and operated by myself, Matt Brown, and I make color woodblock prints using the Japanese hanga method.  This is the same multiple block technique used to make the ukiyo-e prints of the 19th century, including these designs by Kunisada. Inspired in this work by an exhibit of Hiroshige prints at Dartmouth College's Hood Museum in 1993, Kunisada has surpassed Hiroshige as my mentor and  inspiration in my art-making pursuit.

During his lifetime Kunisada (aka Toyokuni III) earned popularity and success exceeding that of the now more well known print designers Hokusai, Utamaro, Hiroshige, and Kuniyoshi. Recent scholarship is re-evaluating his work, but market interest has not caught up. Kunisada's output was outstanding, the diversity of his originality in the use of shape, color, and pattern exceedingly impressive.  Several Japanese print dealer friends and the internet have made it possible for me to find extraordinary examples of his art at astoundingly affordable prices.  As a maker of hanga woodblock prints myself I feel confident to offer a vetted selection of some of his better print designs at affordable prices. I am pleased to share, show, and sell these prints, my idea is that they offer us a lot to learn and enjoy.

A combination of an advanced formal structure, bold colors, and widespread distribution and availability led Western writers and art critics to  label Kunisada's work “decadent”.  During the period of Japonisme, when both in Europe and America folks were nuts about things Japanese,  his work was called “undistinguished”.  As recently as 1960 Jack Hillier, a major scholar of ukiyo-e art, described Kunisada's print designs as “repellent to us, mainly because of spectacular or sensational subjects with color to match” (Hillier,  The Japanese Print, A New Approach, Tuttle Press, 1960).

The result? Great prices.  An important part of my gallery effort is offering these prints framed beautifully with 99% UV protecting museum glass, art that is an investment to be enjoyed and learned from every day.