Printed to Perfection: Twentieth Century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection

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Summary: Review of Japanese prints of noted collector
Review: Displayed in a large-size, high-quality trade paper volume are over 100 prints from the collection of the noted collector Robert O. Muller (d. 2003) which have been bequeathed to the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Besides the artist, name, and date for each print, there are informative annotations on the career of the artist and the subject and style of the print. Most of the prints are in the 20th-century Japanese style of "shin-hanga binga," whose artists were "struggling to acknowledge tradition and at the same time transcend it." Introductory essays cover Muller as an influential collector and place the prints in the context of Japanese artistic traditions. The varied aspects of the text, including a "Glossary," provide a historical overview of Japanese prints as well as a representative catalog of prints from the Muller collection of more than four thousand.