Boy's Festival - Katsushika Hokusai (1824-6)

PlasmaDistortion, 3 months ago

That baby just wants his dinner.

ThatWeirdGuy1001, 3 months ago

Art like this just makes me wonder what kinda shit people were smoking back in the day these were made.

Like the artists knew about perspective and proper angling and all that yet still chose this weird style.

It reminds me of a lot of the medieval artwork you see where everyone looks like a mannequin with an unimpressed face drawn on.

I’m not discrediting the skill required to make this type of artwork I just don’t understand why it became popular enough to be the mainstay.

TranscendentalEmpire, 3 months ago

I’m not discrediting the skill required to make this type of artwork I just don’t understand why it became popular enough to be the mainstay

A lot of these wood cut prints were created just right before or during the Meijji restoration. The Meijji restoration was basically a period where Japan underwent a radically conservative cultural shift. So it makes sense that these seem aged for the 1800’s, they were repopularizing art styles popular in China and Japan hundreds of years prior.

ThatWeirdGuy1001, 3 months ago

That’s actually really interesting to know. I never really think about the political landscape and how it’s impacted artwork throughout history.

jupyter_rain, 3 months ago

This is actually a often very inportant point. Art always evolved with society and politics are a big part of that. Art history is amazing!

TranscendentalEmpire, 3 months ago

Yeap, I’m not usually very interested in a lot of art for the sake of art. But I do love history, and art throughout history has always been one of the better ways modern people can familiarize ourselves with the cultures of the past.