This is a sepia colored photograph that depicts a landscape with the tips of jagged rocks jutting out of water and billowing smoke.
Subject Matter
Rena Bass Forman creates large scale sepia toned photographs of remote landscapes from around the world that show the power and fragility of the natural world.
Label Copy
Recent Acquisitions: Curators Choice Part I, November 12, 2011-March 18, 2012
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This is a sepia colored photograph that depicts a landscape with the tips of jagged rocks jutting out of water and billowing smoke.
Subject Matter
Rena Bass Forman creates large scale sepia toned photographs of remote landscapes from around the world that show the power and fragility of the natural world.
Label Copy
Recent Acquisitions: Curators Choice Part I, November 12, 2011-March 18, 2012
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Silk crepe with yûzen (painted) and surihaku (gold foil) designs and appliquéd patches of Saga brocade, all in hexagonal shapes to match the damask weave of the ground cloth.
Subject Matter
Although the majority of Japanese brocade—a rich fabric with a raised design, woven with gold and silver threads—is produced in the Nishijin district of Kyoto, certain brocades are made in former castle towns like Saga and Kaga. Saga brocade, still renowned today, originated as a textile art practiced as a pastime in the Edo period (1615–1868) by the ladies-in-waiting of the ruling Nabeshima clan of the Kashima domain (modern-day Saga prefecture in the southwestern island of Ky?sh?). It is hand produced on a small, lap-sized table, using thin gold, silver, and platinum papers for the warp, and colorful silk threads for the weft. Because of the delicate, painstaking nature of the process, only a tiny amount can be woven in one day. Saga brocade, therefore, is usually restricted to appliqués, as in these examples.
Label Copy
Although the majority of Japanese brocade—a rich fabric with a raised design, woven with gold and silver threads—is produced in the Nishijin district of Kyoto, certain brocades are made in former castle towns like Saga and Kaga. Saga brocade, still renowned today, originated as a textile art practiced as a pastime in the Edo period (1615–1868) by the ladies-in-waiting of the ruling Nabeshima clan of the Kashima domain (modern-day Saga prefecture in the southwestern island of Kyûshû). It is hand produced on a small, lap-sized table, using thin gold, silver, and platinum papers for the warp, and colorful silk threads for the weft. Because of the delicate, painstaking nature of the process, only a tiny amount can be woven in one day. Saga brocade, therefore, is usually restricted to appliqués, as in these examples.
(Wrapped in Silk & Gold Exhibition, Summer 2010)
Gallery Rotation Spring/Summer 2012
Kimono
Japan, Showa period (1926–1989)
circa 1970–1979
Silk crepe with painted, gilt, and embroidered designs
Gift of Howard and Patricia Yamaguchi, 2005/1.391
Although the majority of Japanese brocade—a rich fabric with a raised design, woven with gold and silver threads—is produced in the Nishijin district of Kyoto, certain types are made in former castle towns like Saga and Kaga. Saga brocade, still renowned today, originated as a textile art practiced as a pastime in the Edo period (1615–1868) by the ladies-in-waiting of the ruling Nabeshima clan of the Kashima domain (modern-day Saga prefecture in the southwestern island of Kyûshû). Saga brocade is produced by hand on a small, lap-sized table, using thin gold, silver, and platinum papers for the warp, and colorful silk threads for the weft. Because of the delicate, painstaking nature of the process, only a tiny amount can be woven in one day. Therefore Saga brocade is usually restricted to small pieces of appliqué, as in these examples.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A shepherdess stands between two cows who are grazing at the center of the image. In the foreground is the indication of a rough track leading towards the distance at left. At the right is a woman bending over beneath a tree.
Subject Matter
Millet's views of rural life often had a nobility although he did not glamorize or idealize the harshness of country life. This impression does still have some of the burr of drypoint, but there are other impressions that are much darker and richer. Millet also varied the color of the ink and how the plate retained ink in order to convey differences of atmosphere.
Label Copy
Gallery Rotation Spring/Summer 2012
Jean-François Millet
France, 1814–1875
Two Cows
n.d.
circa 1847–1855
Etching, drypoint, and roulette
Museum purchase, 1930.18
Millet and Pissarro were important printmakers and contributed to the revival of interest in printmaking in France in the second half of the nineteenth
century. Millet brought to his work an emphasis on line as well as a nuanced tonal quality and a concern with printing effects: the printed impressions of his Two Cows can be tremendously varied in their inks and papers.
Pissarro was a prolific printmaker and his Haymakers, an important subject for the artist, shows his debt to Millet’s imagery. He too was attentive to the printing process and his impressions are often annotated; the inscription on the Vachere au bord de l’eau (cowherder at the water’s edge) indicates that it was an artist’s proof (epreuve d’artiste). This was a work of art in its own right, not one in a series of steps towards a final state of the image. The deep contrasts
of light and dark in this version give it an elegiac quality.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
It is a grayish purple silk crepe kimono with wax-resist patterns, hand-painted design and metallic threads embroidery. The kimono is in full length and has elongated sleeves. The fabric is dyed with purple, leaving the family crest under the collar and the floral design part white. The dark purple scale pattern is added using wax-resist technique. Then the design of multiple kinds of plants is hand-painted with white, red, yellow, pale and blue green, and black colors. The half bottom of the family crest is also dyed with pink. There are mix of tropical flowers and foliage including four kinds of orchids, gladiolus, ferns, and ginger in red, yellow, green, purple, black and white hue. Embroidery is added in various metallic threads around the contours of flowers and leaves.
Subject Matter
Orchids are traditionally considered as symbols of virtuous person in East Asian cultures. But the colorful orchid flowers in this kimono are cultivated kinds, more recent imports to Japan; their flamboyant appearance conveys exotic feeling.
Label Copy
These magnificent kimono were created by Minagawa Gekka, one of the greatest innovators in modern textile art. Gekka’s work is characterized by exotic motifs and complex techniques. Here, he drew the bursting tropical flowers and the family crest in paste and then dyed the fabric with base colors. Next, he added the crackled-ice pattern using an age-old wax-resist technique. After the paste was washed away to expose the white silk, he hand painted the flowers in colorful shades (white lines around the patterns are unpainted). Finally, he added embroidery in various metallic and velvet threads.
The original owner of these kimono was a pioneering female executive in mid-twentieth-century Tokyo who ran a successful real estate business. She and her four sisters ordered their kimono from prestigious shops that dealt with Kyoto manufacturers, and they often wore striking identical Gekka outfits.
(Label for UMMA Japanese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Silk repp weave crepe with tie-dyed (shibori) design
Subject Matter
Traditional silk kimono undergarment. Shibori is a labor-intensive-technique involving the hand-tying of many small knots, and as such would have been very expensive.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Gray silk damask woven in an arare pattern, with partial hon hitta shibori designs and shifuku (tea caddy pouch) design embroidered with silk and metallic thread
Subject Matter
This kimono required a labor intensive technique called shibori, in which hundreds of hours would have been spent tying up each small section where white can be seen on the fabric before immersing it in dye. Shibori textiles are very expensive due to the time and skill required to produce them.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
