Sharaku – Contemporary Variations on Classical Japanese Prints
November 15, 2007
The exhibition comprised three sections: ‘Reproductions of Sharaku’; ‘Sharaku and Graphic Art’, and ‘Homage to Sharaku’.
In the ‘Reproductions’ section were shown recent reproductions of all twenty-eight bust portraits by Sharaku as created by the Adachi Institute of Xylography (Woodcut Prints). Among the some 140 works by Sharaku, currently identified, the most admired are the series of bust portraits from his earliest period. This series was based on kabuki and kyogen plays performed in May 1794 at the three Kabuki theatres in Edo. It is easy to imagine that these ‘odd’ portraits, depicting the deformed faces of kabuki actors, evoked a controversial response from the public when they were first seen by the people of Edo who were familiar until then only with the actor portraits of the Katsukawa school or Utamaro’s beauty prints.
From a historical perspective, there are quite a few points of contact between modern printmaking and the Ukiyo-e prints from the Edo Period. Besides the purely formal and technical similarities between the two art forms, one can also detect analogies in the part they have played or are playing in the life of their respective societies.
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On September 18th 2007, under the patronage of the mayor of Sofia, Mr Boiko Borissov, were opened the “Days of Bavarian Culture in Sofia”, an event organized by the International German-Bulgarian cultural society and its research centre, chaired by Professor Hilde Fai, and the Artists’ Union of Lower Bavaria.
An exhibition “Bavarian Artists” was presented on September 17th 2007.
On September 18th 2007 an open dialogue on the theme “Bavaria and Bulgaria: cultural traditions” was held in the Roerich Hall of the Gallery.
The “Days of Bavarian Culture in Sofia 2007” are a contribution to cultural rapprochement within the framework of the 2008 European Year of Multicultural Dialogue.
The centre of the Days of Bavarian Culture is in Passau: the Union of Artists of Lower Bavaria (BBK Regionalverband Bildender Kunstler Niederbayern), with chairman Hubert Huber, and the Pegasos Literary Circle with chief editor the writer Karl Krieg.
In 1990 the BBK founded the Kulturmodell Braugasse, which has been active creating studios and exhibition rooms. These are bringing together artists not only from Bavaria but also from the entire world to communicate, exchange ideas and experience and work together in the domain of art.
The International German-Bulgarian Cultural Society with its research centre (Bavaria-Sofia) has collaborated with the Artists’ Union of Lower Bavaria since 1993, when young Bulgarian artists went to Passau to work at the Kulturmodell. This tradition has been upheld to the present day.
In 1993 were held for the first time, jointly with the Artists’ Union of Lower Bavaria, the “Days of Bavarian Culture in Sofia 93”. Now, again in collaboration with the Artists’ Union of Lower Bavaria, will be presented for the second time an exhibition of the Bavarian artists Hubert Huber, Christian Zeiler, Barbara Proksch, Gabrielle Sankowski, Benn Muthofer, Alto Hinn, Theo Scherling, Brunhild Moldenhauer and Kri Smolka who, after an interval of fourteen years, will show works created during this period of dramatic changes.
