{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O152889"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O152889/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011ER6378/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011ER6378/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011ER6378","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O152889","accessionNumber":"CIRC.226-1959","objectType":"Woodcut","titles":[{"title":"Ostia Antica IX Roma","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Adja Yunkers was born in Riga, Latvia, and grew up in St. Petersburg. After travelling widely in Latin America and Europe he emigrated to the USA in 1947. He became an important Abstract Expressionist practicing both painting and printmaking. During the 1950s he established a reputation as one of America’s foremost practitioners in woodcut. His woodcuts were typically large and painterly in expression, as can be seen in this image. \r\n\r\nOstia Antica is the ancient harbour at the mouth of the river Tiber (the Latin word for ‘mouth’ is ‘ostia’), originally a harbour for Rome, but the shoreline silted up over time and the town is now at least three kilometres from the beach. Yunkers made a series of woodcuts inspired by  the place. In an interview for the Smithsonian  Archives of  American Art  in 1969,  he described it as a ghost town, adding  “still today there are inlaid symbols the size of this carpet where they had their stalls, in the fishermen’s there were little fishes, in the shoemaker’s there were shoes. Beautiful things that you walk on, and it’s absolutely empty” .  The colours and composition of this image suggest deep dark water with sudden pools of light or maybe these ‘inlaid symbols’.","physicalDescription":"Blue and black ground in rectangular blocks of colour  applied with a roller. Within this, three areas left blank with white ground exposed. Of these, two uppermost are very approximately triangular in shape and the lower one rectangular with a protrusion at its upper right corner. These white areas roughly and partially overlaid with a translucent pale yellow. Over laying the whole are some strips of grey, and near the bottom of the image and parallel to the margin, a narrower strip in brown.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Yunkers, Adja","id":"A21887"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"japanese paper","id":"AAT14143"}],"techniques":[{"text":"woodcut","id":"AAT53296"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Colour woodcut on Japan paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Woodcuts","id":"THES267451"}],"styles":[{"text":"Abstract Expressionism","id":"AAT22099"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2011ER6378"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC (VA)","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"MB2G","shelf":"DR76","box":"MP341"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1955","earliest":"1955-01-01","latest":"1955-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Dr. G.W. Gilkey","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"96.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"60.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Yunkers - 55  Ostia Antica IX Roma","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed, dated and inscribed with title, all in pencil"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'Ostia Antica IX Roma', woodcut by Adja Yunkers, 1955","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1959"}],"production":"One of a series of woodcuts celebrating Ostia Antica, the ancient Roman Harbour.","productionType":{"text":"Limited edition","id":"THES48862"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Ostia Antica, Rome","id":"x42376"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.226-1959"],"accessionNumberNum":"226","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1959,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"3/5","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2008-04-18","availableToBook":false}}