Paul Binnie (Scottish, b. 1967), Travels with the Master: Pittsburgh Night (Meishou to no tabi: Pittsubagu no Yuro), chuban yoko-e 8 5/8 by 12 in (22 by 30.4 cm), signed in silver kanji, Bin-ni, followed by red circular artist’s seal, BINNIE, with series title in upper left margin, Meishou to no tabi, followed by print title, Pittsubagu no Yoru, with Binnie embossed at center bottom margin, and titled, numbered, and signed in pencil, Pittsburgh Night, 6/100, Paul Binnie, 2024

Scholten Japanese Art is happy to announce the eighth design from Paul Binnie’s ongoing Travels with the Master series which pays homage to the shin-hanga landscape artist, Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950).

Inspired by Yoshida’s 1929 small format print, Evening in Pittsburgh (Pittsubaagu no yu), Binnie visited the Pittsburgh in 2013 while en route to Ohio for the opening of the landmark Fresh Impressions shin-hanga exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art, where he gave a lecture and print demonstration, and his own work was on view in a related installation on contemporary Japanese prints.

Hiroshi Yoshida, Evening in Pittsburgh, 1929

The two versions of Pittsburgh show what a difference a hundred years can make; at the time Yoshida visited, Pittsburg was a major industrial town and his work conveys the smog and pollution that plagued the city during the 1920s. Binnie’s print on the other hand captures a much cleaner and modern city, which no longer counts steel as its major industry. The air is clear, and the purples and blues of the night are vibrant and bold. The print features complex bokashi shadings to capture the transition of light on the illuminated buildings, and the support columns of the bridge are printed in black urushi-e (lacquer printing) to highlight the solid structure and to stand out against the blue keyblock.

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