Genroku Era

1960

American, born Japan 1906 - 1999

Japan's Genroku era (1688-1704) is characterized by a spirit of exuberant playfulness and high-fashion urbanism, similar to that represented in woodblock prints and paintings called ukiyo-e, made in the same timeframe. Horiuchi's collage captures the relative abandon of that period with torn pieces of paper whose colors and shapes allude to the embroidered and resist-dyed kosode robes of the Genroku era, their distinctive design elements covering the entire surface of the kimono. The artist executed a much-enlarged version of this painting as a mural at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The mural, made of Venetian glass in place of torn mulberry paper, is still in place at the Seattle Center.

Gouache on mulberry paper mounted on board

30 1/8 x 48 in. (76.5 x 121.9 cm)

Overall h.: 37 13/16 in.

Overall w.: 55 5/16 in.

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

62.30

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Paul Horiuchi", March 9, 2000 - June 11, 2000

Yamanashi-ken, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, "Paul Horiuchi: Japanese Sensitivity Preserved in the Pacific Northwest", September 27, 2003 - November 24, 2003 (9/27/2003 - 11/24/2004)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Northwest Traditions", June 29 - December 10, 1978. (06/29/1978 - 12/110/1978)

Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, "Paul Horiuchi: Master of the Collage", November 11, 1987 - January 17, 1988. (11/19/1987 - 01/17/1988)

Seattle, Washington, City of Seattle, 1971. (1971 - 1971)

Olympia, Washington, State Capitol Museum, "Governor's Festival of Arts, Horiuchi Retrospective for Receipt to the Artist of the Governor's Award for 1970", 1970. (1970 - 1970)

Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum, "Paul Horiuchi: 50 Years of Painting", 1969. (1969 - 1969)

Published ReferencesClark, Sarah, Charles Cowles and Martha Kingsbury. Northwest Traditions, ex. cat. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Art Museum, 1978. p. 105, ill. p. 34

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