Ukiyo-e (Study for 150 year, Rorschach)
2019
- Medium
- brush and coloured inks
- Measurements
- 35.5 × 25.3 cm (sheet)
- Inscription
- inscribed in blue ballpoint pen l.l.: Ukiyo-e
inscribed in pencil l.r.: bq 19 - Accession Number
- 2022.878
- Department
- Australian Prints & Drawings
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of the artist through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2022
© Courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries - Gallery location
- Gallery 18
Level 3, NGV Australia - About this work
-
This drawing is a preparatory sketch of a very large cat that appears in Ben Quilty’s 150 year, Rorschach, 2019, a seven-panel panoramic landscape painting that is in the NGV Collection. Quilty has modelled and styled the cat after Japanese ukiyo-e prints and drawings. Directly translating in English as ‘paintings of the floating world’, ukiyo-e is a type of Japanese woodblock printing that speaks to the transitory nature of life. Such prints became exceedingly popular during the Edo period. Quilty’s reference to the medium in this work reinforces the spiritual and otherworldly quality of the painting.
