100th Anniversary of Chihiro Iwasaki’s Birth The World of H. C. Andersen—An Exhibition of Piezographic Artwork

Transcending a century-long time difference, H.C. Andersen brings to my heart an enduring beauty. Though his writing may be old-fashioned, he is an author whose stories convey the sadness of ordinary people, a melancholy that still resonates in today’s society, offering much from which I can learn. H.C. Andersen’s fairy tales hold dreams that are quite real, which may be why they still speak to our hearts today.

Chihiro Iwasaki, 1964

Chihiro Iwasaki made illustrations for H.C. Andersen’s fairy tales almost every year since she first created the picture-story show The Story of a Mother in her late twenties. Some of the stories, such as Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, and What the Moon Saw, she illustrated repeatedly. Chihiro was attracted to and deeply empathized with the beauty, sadness, dreams and truth contained within the world that H.C. Andersen depicted, qualities that do not fade with the passing of time. Chihiro’s illustrations of these fairy tales, which fill the imagination and innovatively depict the stories’ characters and foreign settings, offer a unique perspective of Chihiro’s artwork that differs from her well-known depictions of children.

In this exhibition we showcase the world of H.C. Andersen’s fairy tales that Chihiro loved through piezographic artwork.*

*Piezography is a modern print technology used by the Chihiro Art Museum to digitally archive and create high-quality reproductions, called piezographic artwork, as a means of preserving the colors and textures of Chihiro’s artwork in its current state. Enabling highly detailed image representation using light-fast micro ink-dots, the technology greatly enhances the reproducibility of subtle watercolor paintings while also making possible the viewing of works under bright lighting.