Note: Here's my art appreciation paper, the Denver Art Museum. 

Maya Nibbe

Professor Belt

Art Appreciation

7-3-2023

On June 20, 2023, I visited the Denver Art Museum in downtown Denver with my grandma Debbie. It’d been years since either of us visited the museum, so this assignment was a perfect opportunity for us to check things out together. There were two buildings, a total of seven floors, and numerous exhibits to explore. However, one exhibit struck me more than the others, that one being the “Her Brush” exhibit located on the first floor of the Martin Building

“Her Brush” was a temporary exhibit hosted by the Denver Art Museum featuring Japanese art created by women, meant to acknowledge and celebrate their work. The art exhibited was from the 1600s to the 1900s, all created by upper-class Japanese women who spent their lives studying art (Her Brush). However, not all the artists studied or created art by choice. From what I could gather from texts on the walls throughout the exhibit, upper-class Japanese women were often confined to “Inner Chambers”, where they were taught how to be perfect companions for men. They were only allowed to study three things; painting, poetry, and calligraphy, besides how to best take care of men (Figure 1).

Many of the artwork featured were Japanese poetry slips and journals, known as Waka (which means Poem in Japanese), which haikus originate from (Asia for Educators). In the exhibit, there were many, many Wakas, written and painted using calligraphy ink on various kinds of paper. But, one in particular caught my eye more than the others, that one being “Stag and Poem”, created by Otagaki Renegetsu and Wada Gesshin (Figure 3).

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much (if any) information about this poem, aside from a little plaque on the wall next to it (and two other pieces), which cited the artists’ names, the material used to create “Stag and Poem”, as well as the estimated date “Stag and Poem” was created. I found it interesting that two artists were responsible for creating one piece. According to that plaque, the poem itself was written by Otagaki Renegetsu, while the stag was painted by Wada Gesshin (Figure 2).

When I returned home to the museum, I turned to the internet to learn more about Otagaki Renegetsu, Wada Gesshin, and their “Stag and Poem” piece.

According to the Denver Art Museum object gallery, research into “Stag and Poem” is ongoing. Only the artists, Otagaki Renegetsu and Wada Gesshin, as well as the medium, ink and paper, are known (Denver Art Museum).

That said, Otagaki Renegetsu is a famous Japanese artist who created a lot of art throughout her life. She was adopted as a baby by Teruhisa Otagaki in Kyoto, Japan, and grew up in a Buddhist temple where she learned many arts including Calligraphy (Biography and Legacy). Unfortunately, Renegetsu experienced a lot of tragedy at a very young age. She lost two husbands and at least four children before she turned thirty years old (Biography and Legacy).

In order to support herself after losing all of her family, Renegetsu became an avid calligrapher, traveling all over the world to create and sell her poetry and artwork (Biography and Legacy). However, when she got too old to travel all around, she ended up living with one of her friends, Wada Gesshin, in a hut in the wilderness near Kyoto, Japan. For the last ten years of her life, Renegetsu spent a lot of time creating artwork with Gesshin, who then preserved much of their works after she passed away (Biography and Legacy).

Speaking of Wada Gesshin, while he wasn’t nearly as famous as Otagaki Renegetsu, he was still a highly respected artist and priest in the Kyoto area. He learned how to paint from Mori Tetsuzan, and when he became a priest, Gesshin used his painting skills to raise money for the poor (Collaborators). Somewhere along the way, Wada Gesshin met and made friends with Otagaki Renegetsu, and took care of her for the last ten years of her life till she died in 1875 (Collaborators). During that time, Renegetsu and Gesshin created a lot of artworks together, including “Stag and Poem”.

I would consider “Stag and Poem” to be a near-perfect example of Asymmetrical Balance, as the stag in the bottom left corner helps to balance out the calligraphy on the upper half of the piece. However, the blank space in the bottom right of the Waka is a little misbalancing, though based on other Japanese Waka art, I don’t think the artists really worried about balancing out their works. After all, Japanese art and European art are different in many ways, and serve different purposes. So, it makes sense that non-European art may not adhere to European art standards.

That said, nothing about “Stag and Poem” or other works like it struck me as annoying or unsettling. In fact, I liked the imbalance and being able to see the paper, as it gave me an idea of what the artwork was made out of, and I could practically feel the texture of it as I stared at it. I like it when I can feel the texture of an artwork. It inspires me to find similar materials and give that style of artwork a shot myself.

In fact, my grandma noticed how long I was looking at “Stag and Poem”, and suggested that I should create something like that myself. After all, aside from being an avid wildlife photographer, I also like to paint, draw, and write. That, and there was a poetry slip creating station in the exhibit, but there were already several people there while we were visiting the exhibit. Oh well. I have plenty of art supplies at home.

Works Cited:

Asia for Educators. “What is Waka?” Accessed 8 July 2023. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_600ce_waka.htm.

“Her Brush.” Denver Art Museum. Denver Art Museum. Accessed 5 July 2023. https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/her-brush.

Gesshin, Wada, and Renegetsu, Otagaki. Stag and Poem. 1865. Denver Art Museum. https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2018.245.

“Biography and Legacy.” Renegetsu. Accessed 8 July 2023. http://rengetsu.org/life/biography/.

“Collaborators.” Renegetsu. Accessed 8 July 2023. http://www.rengetsu.com/life/collaborators/.