The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Program

(Feb. 27, 2011) The Sister Cities Council is very pleased to be able to participate in the spring semester OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) program and our course got off to a great start last week. Nancy Wilkinson,  a faculty member in the Art Department at OSU and a former member of our sister cities council  presented the first class titled Japanese Art and she did a great job.  A significant part of the class was devoted to the history of Japanese woodblock prints over nearly two centuries, from the late 1600s to the late 1800s. She had a beautiful power point program with wonderful photos covering the entire time frame starting with black and white prints up through some of the great Japanese artists whose work had a significant influence on European artists whose work we see in the famous art museums across Europe.  The subject matter of many of the early  creators of  woodblock prints were geisha and actors from the Kabuki theaters in the entertainment district  of Edo (present day Tokyo) known as the floating world and the woodblock prints were called ukiyo-e. It was not until the 1800s that some of the great artists concentrated on landscapes and scenes from everyday life, but the prints are still usually referred to as ukiyo-e rather than simply woodblock prints. Nancy, thank you for a very interesting and enjoyable class.