Floating World

San Diego Reader -- If you know Ukiyo-e primarily because of the influence its prints — with flattened depths, sinuous deployment of contents, and restricted but concentrated palette — had on Western artists (Van Gogh owned 400 prints), an exhibition split between the San Diego Museum of Art and the University of San Diego, Dreams and Diversions, will break open a new world. It’s a generously instructive introductory course in Ukiyo-e’s origins, development, thematic preoccupations, and techniques.

Dreams and Diversions has two venues, The San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park and the University of San Diego. It will be on view till June 5, with a complete rotation of prints — the first rotation of Hiroshige’s Kyoka Tokaido, for instance, contains prints of stations 1 through 26, the second rotation displays the remainder — February 26, 2011. (Full Story)