Winter Scenes

Finally…after several failed tries and tons of disappointments, I finally made it to a Japanese prints exhibition—though a different one—the Hiroshige exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit features Utagawa Hiroshige’s works, most of which are landscapes that depict winter scenes, corresponding to the recent snowy and freezing weather.

Entering the museum after a long walk along N. Michigan Avenue made my glasses fogged up. My legs and fingers were numb and I had to sit on the bench for a few minutes to warm my body up before going into the galleries. This scene seemed a bit ironic because this girl who kept complaining about the unloveliness and horribleness of this season was going to see an exhibit called Winter Scenes and appreciate the beauty of the snow as if she had never experienced the rigors of it.

The exhibit was tiny actually, and I almost missed it while walking through different galleries because it only occupied a quiet in-between corridor. Prints of snow scenes were hanging on the walls on both sides of the corridor. Some depict people toiling across the bridge in the heavy snow; two depict geisha walking out of the house however hanging back by the snow; several depict birds in the winter firmly fighting against the severe weather.

An interesting thing I noticed was that although all prints shared the theme of snow, snow itself was not even printed. The dominating white color blocks covering each print were actually just the unpainted paper itself. Presenting the most prominent part of a work by leaving the paper blank—this may be the simplest and the most candid way to depict nature itself.