View Of Boats On Lake Motosu Below Mount Fuji From Route 709
View Of Boats On Lake Motosu Below Mount Fuji From Route 709
Signed Mixed Media
Julian Opie
90 x 125cm, Edition of 50, Mixed Media, 2009
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Meaning & Analysis
View Of Boats On Lake Motosu Below Mount Fuji From Route 709 is a print from Julian Opie’s Japanese Landscapes series from 2009. Characteristic of Opie’s highly recognisable landscape style, this print reveals the artist’s extensive knowledge of Japanese art, taking inspiration from the woodblock prints of Utagawa Hiroshige.
Created using computer drawing programmes to manipulate digital photographs, these prints were inspired on a trip taken by the artist around Mount Fuji in Japan. These landscapes were originally displayed as a series of animations based on double and triple LCD screens, representative of the way in which Opie tries to defy traditional art boundaries through his work. Opie has spoken of this saying, “Our attitude towards art history, towards schools, styles, and ‘isms’, was quite aggressive. We wanted to manipulate them, to use whatever style we wished.”
View Of Boats On Lake Motosu Below Mount Fuji From Route 709 consciously reflects the work of Hiroshige in its verticality through the horizontal format, cropping, colour gradation and strips of calligraphy. Opie identifies with this aesthetic that holds a sense of stripped-down flatness that lends itself to reproduction. The print’s lack of preciousness, reminiscent of 19th century Japanese woodblocks, works to challenge the existing artistic paradigm in its relation to the smallness of human achievement.
