Japanese
Landscapes

This series is indicative of the artist’s extensive knowledge of Japanese art, taking inspiration from the woodblock prints of the Ukiyo-e school. Created using computer drawing programmes to manipulate digital photographs, Eight Landscapes is representative of the way in which Opie tries to defy traditional art boundaries through his work. Opie has spoken of this saying, “Our attitude towards art history, towards schools, styles, and ‘isms’, was quite aggressive. We wanted to manipulate them, to use whatever style we wished.”

Japanese Landscapes consciously reflects the work of Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro in its verticality through the horizontal format, cropping, colour gradation and strips of calligraphy. Opie identifies with this aesthetic that holds a sense of stripped-down flatness and lends itself to reproduction. The work of the Ukiyo-e school shows an apparent simplicity that is attained from underlying complexity, and Opie skilfully reflects this in his Japanese Landscapes series. Indeed, the landscapes are indicative of Hiroshige’s sparse, ideal compositions, that play with unconventional perspective and cropping techniques to contrast foreground motifs with the backdrop to dramatic effect. The lack of preciousness of each print in the series, reminiscent of 19th century Japanese woodblocks, works to challenge the existing artistic paradigm in its relation to the smallness of human achievement.

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