Sea—Evening Calm, 1964

Color woodblock print

29 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches (74.3 x 56.5 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Albert J. Caplan, 1964  

1964-190-1

Iwami’s woodblock prints are characterized by the artist’s use of thick, velvety inks, embossed surfaces, and the natural grain of un-hewn blocks of driftwood. Her bold yet simple compositions create a quiet intensity that demands the viewer’s attention.  In Sea—Evening Calm Iwami juxtaposes motion and stillness, specificity and abstraction; the image evokes a sense of primordial nature in the visual language of landscape to captivate the viewer’s eye. Although this work does not depict a specific place, the image nevertheless reminds one of the wide-open spaces of the natural world, like the expanse of the open sea.

Anna Moblard Meier