Beginning in the 1830s, the Japanese artists Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige captured imaginations worldwide with their vibrant prints of landscapes. Cascading sapphire waves. Delicate cherry blossoms against vermilion skies. Icecaps in the distant mist. It’s no surprise that the Japanese word for woodblock printing is ukiyo-e— “pictures of the floating world.” Ethereal and atmospheric, these timeless works of art are on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, where one can admire the intense colors and bold lines that influenced artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, and Klimt despite the oceans between East and West. —Kausaur Fahimuddin