Japanese woodcuts: Ukiyo-e art collection

How many times do you visit an art museum and say to yourself: “I wish I could have that image?” We all think that investing in art is the exclusive property of the super-rich, that Sotheby’s and Christie’s are for other people, not for us. Well that’s not really true. Obviously, an Andy Warhol or a Van Gogh will stretch most pockets, but there is great art out there, rich in history, beautiful to look at, and best of all, because art from the past is a finite resource, an investment. it will keep its value. value.

For me, 19th century Japan woodcuts are a perfect fit for low-cost premium investment needs. I run an online gallery that exclusively sells Japanese prints from this period, or ukiyo-e, as it’s called. I guess I’m biased, but I love this work so much (I’ve been a collector all my life) that I not only want to sell the work, I also want to advertise it, show it, write about it, and even make movies about it. that.

First a little about work. For those of you who think you are unfamiliar with Japanese prints, I am sure you have seen the Great Wave off Hokusai crashing into drink coasters or greeting cards, or else the red sides of Mount Fuji on a fridge magnet or poster in somewhere. This type of art is actually more visible than you might think. Right now, there are major ukiyo-e exhibitions in national galleries in London, Boston, Oxford, and Brooklyn, to name just a few.

There is a lot of history to put into a short article, but in a nutshell: the Japanese made woodblock printing their main visual art for two to three hundred years. Japan was isolated at the time and the style of work, method and theme were developed in a strict and easily identifiable manner. The process itself is very complicated and enormously skillful, involving an artist making a drawing and a craftsman carving anything up to twenty wooden blocks from the drawing and printing each block by hand on paper in separate colors. The end result of the process is an edition of exquisite prints of many colors.

Topics can include warriors from history, myths and legends, beautiful women, landscapes, poetry, or more commonly the great actors and performances of kabuki theater. Everything is rich in color, visually stunning, and every print has a story to tell. However, what about costs and investment?

Investing in art is a bit like real estate. You can buy a property because you like it or you can buy it because you want to see it go up in value. The ideal is to buy a property that you like and that will also give you a return. So it is with art. Contemporary art is a minefield; there are so many people making things, so many objects in the world and there is no real measure of what is fashionable and what is not. At the higher end, the risk is less overwhelming because there is an elaborate network of dealers and collectors to stabilize the market and steer it in the right direction. But high-end contemporary art is wildly expensive and still attracts risk.

More sensible is to choose a niche genre that you like, where the artist or artists are dead and where there is a history of market prices and a consensus on value and quality. This is why Japanese prints are a good buy right now.

As in property, there are high premiums for top pieces that rapidly increase in value and quickly become unaffordable, and as a result, ripples are spreading outward and the market is following in the wake of rising prices at the heart. For years the market and the experts were obsessed with the classical period of Japanese art, the 17th and 18th centuries. For example, a Utamaro print sold for $ 311,679 in 2002. Naturally, the market needed to expand and Hiroshige, the famous 19th-century landscaper, now makes between $ 30,000 and $ 40,000 for a single print. Increasingly, 19th century prints have become highly valued and artists like Kuniyoshi and Kunisada are now priced high. The shortage of classical period pieces now means that there is growing interest in this art from the Edo period, so it is an excellent time to invest in what is now appreciated as very fine art of the highest order.

One thing people notice is that prints by the same artist vary greatly in price … why? The condition is very important, remember that these are fragile things and it sometimes seems miraculous that they survived. Prints are prone to fading, worm and insect attack, water damage, moisture, fire, and rough handling and excessive clipping. Condition is paramount for value, but also certain artist prints are considered of exceptional artistic value, others are rare because the editions were so small. However, if you buy from reputable dealers, the overall market value will be highly reflected in the price. Above all, buy prints because you like them; A good dealer will provide a lot of information about a piece: the date, the subject, who is represented, etc. Information like this greatly enriches the ownership experience. It is also possible that your print is in an important museum collection; the MFA in Boston has thousands of ukiyo-e prints, many of which are online. With an artist like Utagawa Kuniyoshi, there are a lot of major exhibition catalogs, coffee table books, etc., that can have your print illustrated.

Japanese prints are a world of magical storytelling and beauty … take the time to look at them and maybe visit Christies online and check the prices to make sure of the market. I have put a link below to our own gallery, the Toshidama Gallery and also a link to our blog which has articles, videos and image resources. Please contact us if you have any requests for information on this rich and wonderful art.