Akira Kurosawa’s Paintings

smooth website dude. i love the paintings. after kurofan went down, the world was in need of a good kurosawa website. thx

Thanks a lot, Peter. Your website isn’t bad, either. Although, why are the pages from the menu most of the time opening to a new window? In any case, interesting films you have there.

Is there a cheaper website for this book? Amazon Japan wants $328.00 for it.

As far as I know, it is that price everywhere. And second hand copies don’t really show up, either.

You may, of course, want to keep your eye on Yahoo Auctions Japan, although I have never seen a copy of this there. If you live outside of Japan, you may find this little article that I wrote a few months ago helpful: http://tinyurl.com/ydvz7e

Thanks for the info.

To be honest, I am kicking myself for not having bought a couple of copies of the book in 1999 when it was published and sold in a Kurosawa exhibition at Hiroshima (I think the exhibition itself was actually touring Japan that year).

I think the Complete Drawings of Akira Kurosawa was on special offer there with about 25% off the price. Which still doesn’t make it cheap, but 25% is almost a hundred dollars off. I really should have bought some.

Wonderful website. Do you know if any of Kurosawa’a original paintings are available to purchase ? – perhaps at one of the auction houses.
Thanks
Mark

To be honest, Mark, I have absolutely no idea. But I don’t recall seeing anything like that ever, so it is possible that the paintings are kept by Kurosawa Productions, and they may indeed be more valuable for them as exhibition pieces than something to auction off.

can you guys help with a project i need a bunch of documentaries about Akira

Here is a list of documentaries:
http://akirakurosawa.info/documentaries-on-akira-kurosawa/

There are also some documentaries available online, although quality varies:
http://akirakurosawa.info/online-videos-documentaries/

My library has the Ran! art and script book, I’m reading it right now.

Great artwork in there.

Yes, the artwork Kurosawa did for Ran is marvellous stuff. Could you give me more information about the book you mentioned, W? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. What’s the title and, if possible, the ISBN?

I like this new page of illustrations, and am a strong supporter of copyright law for art. Although it may be an occasional inconvenience in this forum (resolved, now, through the gracious accommodations of the copyright holders) it has been a long, continuous slog for art historians, whose jobs are dependent on good illustrations of the canon (whatever canon we are talking about….East, West, North, South, and all the permutations !) .

I like this page. What drew my attention in this new lineup was the image of the armor and helmet (armet…? ) . This image, in it’s mimesis of observed detail is a wonderful example of expressionist strokes building a believable illusion. But, really, I enjoy all of these images.
The question I have, and perhaps you can answer: are these “notes” for greater compositions (that is: film) or are they supposed to be stand-alone? It makes little difference to me personally, since I cannot undo my knowledge of the films, and this feeds into my interest in the paintings (they are mixed-media, watercolor, goauche, oil pastel? It would be good to note both size of actual work, support…that is to say; canvas, gessoed wood,etc. But, I think these are on paper and media..tell us if watercolor, colored pencil, etc.) Perhaps, Vili you can illuminiate the issue of whether or not these were ever meant to be stand-alone images.

Coco, it was actually a couple of years ago that this page went through the modifications.

And to answer your question, I think Kurosawa meant these just as film making aides, not as stand-alone works of art. If my memory doesn’t fail me, he said something to that effect in some interview somewhere, and commented how funny it is that there is now so much interest in his drawings, but a cursory scan of the usual books didn’t give me the source. It might be on one of the video interviews.

Oh Vili, you caught me up! I might have confused these images with the ones from the Paris exhibition page links. To me, it is a new page of illustrations! Ha!

Vili, I thought that the works about the time of Ran were done because Kurosawa was frustrated with being unable to make the film…and that they were also made as visual aids to persuade potential producers…?

But, I did not know that the images for Dreams were also preparation for film, although, of course it makes sense.

Coco, it was actually Kagemusha for which Kurosawa painted the scenes that he had written partly because it was the only way he thought he could ever make the film, and partly (later) to work as visual aids for potential investors.

With Ran, I think the images were more for the crew.

Thanks for that clarification, Vili. If you do come across the interview that references his paintings, if you let me know where I can view, that would be much appreciated!