Читать книгу Extraordinary Origami - Marc Kirschenbaum - Страница 6

America might conjure up things like baseball and apple pie, but origami? Yes, it is true that decorative paper folding has roots in Japan, but as an art form origami grew rapidly in the West. The USA in particular was a catalyst for the exchange of origami ideas and development, and is the home of some of the most prominent origami masters in the world. In the 1950s Lillian Oppenheimer of New York City traveled around the world connecting origami artists who had been working independently. The subsequent exchange of ideas certainly helped push the sophistication and polish that origami was experiencing. An origami center was founded in 1958, and in 1980 this spawned off into a full-fledged organization known today as OrigamiUSA, largely from the efforts of fellow New Yorker Michael Shall. Alice Gray, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History, provided the organization a home base in the museum. Gray, a respected origami artist herself, also created diagrams for now classic origami pieces, and became the editor of the organization’s magazine.

This book showcases the works of eighteen origami artists, some who were prominent back in the early days of this paper-folding renaissance, as well as a few people who are relatively new to the art. As you can see from their biographies, these are all very accomplished artists. There is certainly a tremendous amount of paper-folding talent in America.

An exciting part of this showcase is how varied the approaches are, and there is certainly a wide variety of subjects tackled. You can recreate their masterworks through the clear instructions. There are also links to see videos of the pieces being folded. Throughout the course of these projects, there are plenty of folds to keep fingers busy for hours. Enjoy!