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Puppies
(Kushi 狗子)
(c. 1930)
Medium
bronze
Measurements
(a) 15.0 × 10.5 × 18.0 cm (large puppy)
(b) 9.4 × 12.2 × 16.8 cm (small puppy)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Allan Myers AO and Maria Myers AO, 2015
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
These bronze sculptures display the long and skilled tradition of Japanese bronzeware portraying playful ideas of ‘cute’. Dogs are animals of the Japanese and Chinese zodiac calendar, and became popular themes in Japanese art during the Edo period (1600–1868). The simplicity and sophistication of Japanese Art Deco design during the modernist era is illustrated here by the puppies’ solid rounded forms, contrasted with their innocent, delicately rendered expressions.