Hiroshige and Indian Master

The diagonal sense of space in the Hiroshige is palpable. It takes us immediately into three dimensional space. The Indian print, on the other hand, pushes everything into shapes on the picture plane. Interestingly, in both images, there is a background “bass track” upon which other elements are placed, although I guess you could say that every painting could be broken down in this manner, but in these examples it is particularly clear. In the Indian print it is a green, red and black rectangular composition. In the Hokusai, it is the slow fade in the background from brown to white to blue. Notice that floral elements are important in both pictures. Notice that there is also a sense of pure space in the Indian print if you let yourself see the starry sky as a plane in the back. Writing is obviously integral to both pictures. I can understand neither the Japanese nor the Hindi. I do know that in the Hokusai it is a poem that references the ducks and relates them to human relationships…probably in a way that is uncomfortable to me…a bit twee….so it is actually better that I do not think too much about that。 Regardless of that, I can certainly appreciate the beauty of the writing itself, and the fact that it is just some short poem. This might be similar to seeing the lyrics of a favorite song written down on the page. Often lyrics just don’t matter as much as the fact that there is a person saying something in a way that blends meaningfully with the music. There is no rule that words have to say anything meaningful, at least not in art. The words in the Indian print are apparently narrating some story about this woman who gets up at night and goes to visit the lotus plant. Note how the architecture interferes and integrates with the words and how in the Hokusai the words integrate with the plant life, and almost seem to be a kind of grass..