This cleverly designed, playful, and thought-provoking book about Katsushika Hokusai’s The Sazaidō of Gohyakurakanji and James McNeill Whistler's Variations in Flesh Colour and Green - The Balcony, also includes drawing, collage, coloring and press-out activities.
With a presentation that divides the book into two equal parts, A Tale of Two Balconies explores what makes each of these artworks—both in the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution—unique. Exploring the depicted locations of each, in Edo Japan and Victorian England, the authors examine the idea of the balcony as a construct at once private and public, creating a view that juxtaposes different cultural domains within and beyond the balcony railing, and including the viewer as part of the group of figures depicted in the scene.
This stunning book is double-fronted so the reader can pick it up from either side and begin; there is no “correct” order. A center section invites readers to engage further with the themes of perspective and recollection through art-making activities.
