Roof of Florence

1959

Japanese, 1914 - 1988

Sekino's tiled rooftops of Florence could just as easily represent the temple rooftops of Kyoto, but for the addition of the rose window at the top. The overlapping roof tiles cover the picture plane from bottom to top, creating an almost wholly abstracted pattern of discrete blocks of color highlighted here and there by whitewashed walls. The artist foregoes the techniques of Western linear perspective here in favor of a more traditionally Japanese bird's eye view, with somewhat distorted angles and flattened, almost compressed, space.

Woodblock print

Image: 32 x 21 7/8 in. (81.3 x 55.6 cm)

Sheet: 36 1/2 x 24 3/4 in. (92.7 x 62.9 cm)

Northwest Printmakers Purchase Award, 1960

60.6

Not currently on view

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM