Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints Organised by
the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Presented by STPI
12 July to 13 September

STPI is proud to present “Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints” for the first time in South East Asia, a specially curated exhibition of over 50 Japanese woodblock prints from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts collection.

It features iconic works by renowned ukiyo-e masters like Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro. Known for their influence on the French Impressionist masters such as Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, these works on paper encapsulated enchanting images of beautiful women (bijin-ga), kabuki actors, landscapes, surimono (which literally means a commissioned ‘printed thing’ for private distribution), and reinterpretations of Japanese history and legends.

Ukiyo (“floating world”) –e (“pictures”) refers to ‘Pictures of the Floating World’. Indicative of the buoyant spirit at the time, these prints captured beauty and pleasure in passing moments, and demonstrated the artists’ unmatched level of creativity and invention in their perpetuation of the ethos of ukiyo through the accessibility of the print.

Organized thematically, the exhibition provides a kaleidoscopic view of popular culture in pre-modern Japan, as well as a broad sweep of works by contemporary artists inspired by the ukiyo-e. By digitally stitching together hundreds of images, Londoner Emily Allchurch creates breathtaking views inspired by prints in Utagawa Hiroshige’s series ‘100 Views of Edo’. Other contemporary artists in the show include prints by Wilson Shieh, created in collaboration with STPI, and works by Masami Teraoka from the SAM Tyler Collection here in Singapore. Their works demonstrate that ukiyo-e remains a vital artistic influence, as relevant today as when it was created by Japan’s pre-modern Pop artists.