Details
The image
A bird perched on a flowering branch, the flowers drawn as small circles and the leaves as flat ovals, the whole arrangement placed high on the sheet. The lower half is empty paper, and the emptiness is what gives the bird its position.
Where it comes from
Woodblock printing in Japan was built from a division of labour: designer, cutter and printer each did one thing, and the discipline of that collaboration shows in every line, because nothing could be corrected afterwards. The prints reached Europe in the nineteenth century and changed what designers there thought a picture could be: flat colour, hard contour, empty space used as structure.
On the wall
It suits a study, a bedroom or a reading corner, where a vertical image with open space makes a small room feel taller. Because the palette is limited and the line is fine, it needs daylight and a wall that is not busy. In a group it should be the lightest piece.
In company
Hung beside another piece from the Taguchi Tomoki collection, it reads as part of a series rather than a single picture.Two sheets hung together read as a pair rather than as two pictures.
