Summary
Highlights
Located in the Museum of Art in Atami, Japan, 'Red and White Plum Blossoms' by Ogata Kōrin is a National Treasure and a culmination of the artist's career. This screen pair depicts two plum trees, one with white flowers and the other with red, separated by a stream.
The painting is extraordinary for its blend of naturalism and abstraction. Kōrin demonstrates an understanding of the plum tree's anatomy and the rushing water, yet creates an aestheticized view typical of Japanese gardens. The gold background symbolizes preciousness and enhances the sense of the natural elements.
Kōrin uses color and placement to create volume and mass without traditional outlines or shadows. The composition, though seemingly simple with a tree on each side of a stream, is asymmetrical and contrasts movement with stillness. The artist's background in various media like lacquer and textiles informed his painting style.
Plum blossoms are an ancient subject in Japanese and Chinese art, symbolizing ephemerality and the transient nature of beauty. They represent the transition from winter to spring, a period of heightened awareness of change, which resonated with Kōrin as he created this piece late in his life.
Kōrin employed a unique technique of layering wet paint to create textures resembling moss and bark, including the use of malachite for green-blue lichen. The painting is considered a masterpiece of the Rinpa school, a style characterized by lushness, vibrant colors, gold, and a high degree of abstraction. The Rinpa school often enlarges and focuses on specific natural elements, drawing inspiration from earlier Japanese artists like Sōtatsu. The artwork's style evokes comparisons to Gustav Klimt and the Art Nouveau movement, which looked to Japanese art after Japan opened to the West in 1852.
Due to their light-sensitive nature, these panels are rarely displayed, usually only once a year in late winter when plum trees bloom, making viewing them a special privilege.