Altoon Sultan blogs about a recent exhibition of Japanese prints at the Hood Museum of Art.

Sultan writes: "Images of the 'floating world'––ukiyo-e––a world of actors and courtesans, became a subject for prints in the late 17th century. The curators of this show chose to focus on the women of that world, leaving out the many images of famous actors. The compositions of the prints range from complex… to fairly simple; the color is subtle and harmonious. What most interests me, what I have chosen to focus on, in this group of prints is the way line flows gracefully from one form to the next, sometimes its curves are alongside the straight lines of architecture. Within the sinuous lines are patterns accentuating the form, or flattening it."