Stylistic analysis Find and read the sections \"Art and History\" and \"Describi
ID: 393900 • Letter: S
Question
Stylistic analysis
Find and read the sections "Art and History" and "Describing a Work of Art" in Chapter One of the textbook.
Roger Shimomura's artwork on the left is titled, "Diary: December 12, 1941," from An American Diary Series, acrylic painting on canvas, 1980. The series is based upon the diaries of the artist's grandmother who came to the United States from Japan in the early 20th century. Born in Seattle, Roger Shimomura is a contemporary Japanese-American artist.
How does the artist make the picture on the left appear Japanese in style? What visual details (aspects of style) seem Japanese to you? How might we relate the style of the art to the heritage of the artist? What do you think the artist is trying to express through the art?
Now look at the image on the right. It is an an example of Ukiyo-e - a Japanese print made by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), a Japanese artist. What can you find out about Japanese prints? What is Ukiyo-e? What aspects of style resemble the painting by Roger Shimomura? Why might Shimomura choose this style for his piece?
Please list any sources you use (such as websites)
atiExplanation / Answer
The artwork in the right is from Roger Shimomura’s. He is an American artist from Seattle. His grandmother's diary inspires most of his artworks. This is an actual Japanese artwork because of all the furniture that we see in the picture are Japanese. Every furniture and also dress is trying to give us some message.
Lady in the picture representing Roger’s grandmother who married and came to the United States. She is thinking and writing something. She is writing the diary. The shadow is a Japanese sign however we know that her grandmother is living in united states. Why is a shadow there? The shadow is the sign of bad events and actually on that time world was experiencing the WWII. I think that shadow is the stress and difficulty on the Japanese people who were living during the WWII.
The other interesting thing is that you can even guess that his grandmothers were the first generation of Japanese people in united states because she didn’t give up his culture. She was in united states, but she didn’t use the chair, and she is sitting on the floor. I believe that artwork is not just a picture, you can get any information that you want as long as you give a lot of attention to it. The artwork in the right is from Utagawa Hiroshige. He was a Ukiyo-e artist. Ukiyo-e is a Japanese art which includes a lot of color on it, and it covers the female beauties, nature, landscape, and history.
I think Japanese culture inspires this artwork to look like the one in the left as both of them. The floor, chairs, windows, painting is all from Japan. However, I guess that the feeling in both of them is same. There is a depressing and sad felling in both of the artworks. On the left, we have a lady that doesn’t look happy and o the left we see a landscape which shows us fall. Fall is the season of sadness, and also we see the sunset. I think both artworks are representing people life on WWII.