Year of the Horse

         Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!  Here’s a pleasing little relief block print (I’m guessing linoleum) depicting fireworks being set off in a Chinatown Street in 1936 or so.  It’s by Julio de Diego (Spain/USA, 1900-1979).  I particularly like how the texture of the gouges makes a pattern on the white facade of the building, and on the sidewalk.  This piece does a great job capturing the gleam of all the lights at night: the firework, the traffic light, and the restaurant signs.

        We are now entering the year of the horse, so here are a few horses to set the tone.  First, here’s one by Urushibara Mokuchū (Japan, 1888-1953).  It’s of the style that reproduces the look of brush painting, with tapered and feathered lines and shades of lighter ink as well as black.  The background, too, has been printed with a transparent wash so that the wood grain

shows.  This is one of a series of horses all similar but in different poses.

        And I also have for you two “H is for Horse” illustrations from alphabets I’ve featured before.  Mary Azarian’s horses are standing in the barn doorway, possibly being geared up to get to work pulling a cart.  This seems like a fine sentiment for the start of a new year: get ready to get to work!  The other horse here is by Enid Marx.  I’m not sure I trust the expression in its eye, but I do like its spots, as well as all the elements of the background, from clouds to trees, to ground.

        This is specifically the year of the fire horse, which allegedly will be good for the arts, which I appreciate, but not good for the climate or the tensions of strained relationships, which does not bode well for the world.  Luckily my children are horses, so this should be good for them, and my husband and I are dogs, which are supposedly also going to have stability and financial rewards this year.

        I happen to look at all of this purely as fantasy (and an excuse for relief block prints), but you know I do like fantasy, so we’ll see where the plot takes us!

[Pictures: New Year in China Town, relief print by Julio de Diego, 1936 (Image from Art Institute Chicago);

Horse (D), woodblock print by Urushibara Mokuchū, 1960 (Image from Minneapolis Institute of Art);

Horse, wood block print by Mary Azarian, from A Farmer's Alphabet, 1981;

H, wood block print by Enid Marx from Marco’s Animal Alphabet, 1979 (Image from the Saleroom).]