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Your galleryCaricatures of Laughing Actors Scribbled on a Wall (Hakumensho kabe no mudagaki)
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- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Read the faces one by one, from the broad grin at the middle right to the gaping mouth at the lower right, and notice how few lines each one needs.
Kuniyoshi drew these six heads as if scribbled on a wall, with rough outlines, patchy gray tones and comments written beside them in black and red. Prints of kabuki actors were at times banned in this period, and in a related series, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation explains, Kuniyoshi claimed to be copying wall graffiti rather than making new portraits. This is the right sheet of a set of three; the Art Institute also holds the others.
Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban triptych (center: 1975.476, left: 1975.475) · 35.3 × 24.8 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
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What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Caricatures of Laughing Actors Scribbled on a Wall (Hakumensho kabe no mudagaki)
- Artist
- Utagawa Kuniyoshi Japanese, 1797-1861
- Date
- c. 1848/51
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban triptych (center: 1975.476, left: 1975.475)
- Dimensions
- 35.3 × 24.8 cm (13 7/8 × 9 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Daniel Green
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.