New York’s annual Armory Show and its feisty swarm of spin-offs, all happening this week, are one tough and trendy act to follow. So perhaps it’s fitting that the city’s Japan Society called on a centuries-old master to do the trick. Opening there next Friday, March 12, and on view through June 13, “Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection” showcases Japan’s most daring 19th-century Ukiyo-e master with 150 color woodblock prints. In addition to the period’s traditional subjects like landscape, kabuki, and lovely ladies, Kuniyoshi incorporated unusual subjects for his time; his thrashing sea creatures, giant skeletons, personified animals, and action-packed tales prefigure contemporary Manga art. After the wonderland of Armory week, such a lucid conversation with history is refreshing – and a feast for the eyes.
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