Though I doubt they were intended to be so, the striking works of Japanese artist Manabu Ikeda, seen at this juncture, can seem chillingly prophetic.

The structures, shapes and waves of objects in his work are portrayed as enormous in scale, as revealed by the astonishingly complex textural elements of countless smaller items of which they are composed.

His works are large and created in pen ink and acrylic on paper mounted on board. The level of detail is striking, even though it is just hinted at in the images available on the web.

Ikeda was born in Saga and is now based in Tokyo. He studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

He is represented by the Mizuma Art Gallery, which has a selection of his work online. He doesn’t seem to have a dedicated web presence of his own (or else I don’t know how to find it as a Japanese language website).

The largest images I’ve been able to find are on Art Inconnu (click for larger versions). I’ve listed some articles and other resources below.

Ikeda is represented in the group exhibition now at the Japan Society in New York, Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art, which runs until June 12, 2011.

[Via Art Daily]

Most people who are familiar in passing with Art Nouveau artist Alphonse (Alfons) Mucha (see my recent post on Alphonse Mucha on Gallica Digital Library) are not aware of his body of work that is in a very different style.

The most important and striking examples of this are a series of 20 very large canvasses called The Slav Epic, which Mucha considered the most important work of his lifetime and the culmination of his artistic career.

The paintings tell the history of Slavic people, and are housed in a castle in the small town of Moravský. There is long standing controversy about plans to bring them to Prague.

The paintings are little known outside of the Czech Republic and images of them are not readily available. There are few, if any, in most books on Mucha, though Mucha by Sarah Mucha is listed as containing some information and images on the Slav Epic paintings, even if incomplete. I haven’t seen the book myself.

There are a few scattered examples on the web, notably on the Mucha Foundation, Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons and a complete set with commentary on the site of John Price, and an even better, larger set on the blog, A Journey Through Slavic Culture.

There is also a post on the Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog that features alternate states and preliminary photographs of some of the works.

[Golden Age Comic Book Stories link via @francisvallejo]

Clark Hulings, a superb American artist I wrote about in 2009, died in February of this year.

In what is being described as his last show of new work, The Forbes Galleries in New York will host a show titled Clark Hulings: An American Master from March 23 to September 10, 2011.

The exhibition will feature 48 works, including oil paintings, drawings and watercolors, ranging from large finished works to small pochade sketches. Of these 15 oils and 6 drawings will be offered for sale separately through Morris and Whiteside Galleries in South Carolina.

The latter gallery has a slideshow of the works on their website, adding nicely to what it an unfortunately small amount of his work available for viewing on the web.

Click on the first thumbnail to launch the popup window and you can then step through the images with the controls at bottom, or let it run as a slideshow. (It appears to have a glitch in displaying one of the last 7 or 8 images; you may have to close and reopen the popup.)

Pecay from Bibliodyssey, who has a knack for these things, points us to a nice selection of posters from Alphonse (Alfons) Mucha, the Czech artist whose name is essentially synonymous with “Art Nouveau”.

The images are on the Gallica Digital Library, produced by the National Library of France.

There are three pages of images (arrows at top and bottom), and discounting multiple copies of the same poster, about 30 posters.

Though not the largest or best Mucha images available on the web, it’s a nice selection and an enjoyable diversion. You can find more Mucha resources in my previous posts listed below.

[Addendum: I just noticed that in a nice bit of synchronicity Gurney Journey has a post today about Mucha’s very different images for “La Pater“.]