Mizu to tsuki (Water and Moon)
Iwami Reika, Mizu to tsuki (Water and Moon), 1972, color woodblock print with gold foil on paper, The Carol and Seymour Haber Collection, © unknown, research required, 1998.52.10
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Mizu to tsuki (Water and Moon)
- Related Titles
original language: 水と月
translated: Water and Moon
transliterated: Mizu to tsuki
- Artist
- Date
1972
- Period
Japan: Shōwa period (1926-1989)
- Medium
color woodblock print with gold foil on paper
- Edition
artist's proof
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
image: 16 1/16 in x 10 15/16 in; sheet: 20 3/16 in x 13 5/8 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
inscription: 7-1371 WATER AND THE MOON, graphite [in a different hand], bottom right
signature; date: Reika Iwami '72, graphite, lower right
title: 水と月, graphite, lower middle
edition: a.p., graphite, lower left
- Collection Area
Asian Art; Graphic Arts
- Category
Prints
Japanese Modern Prints
- Object Type
relief print
- Culture
Japanese
- Credit Line
The Carol and Seymour Haber Collection
- Accession Number
1998.52.10
- Copyright
© unknown, research required
- Terms
Iwami was one of the first Japanese women to receive recognition in the male-dominated field of printmaking. She restricts her palette to velvety blacks, tones of grey, and deep red, enhanced with gold and silver foil and embossed textures. Using found and simulated driftwood and pieces of fishing net, the materials used in this composition directly evoke her subject—the sea. Here Iwami draws on a poetic image found throughout Japanese literature and art: the reflection of the moon in the water, something visible yet inaccessible.
- Exhibitions
2006 Through Rustling Grasses: Nature in the Japanese Print Portland Art Museum
2017 Craftsmanship and Wit: Modern Japanese Prints from the Carol and Seymour Haber Collection Portland Art Museum
