Review: “Looking East,” tracing Japan’s impact on 19th century Western artists─at the Asian Art Museum through February 7, 2016

“Looking East,” at the Asian Art Museum through February 7, 2016, places 170 Japanese and American and French artworks side by side so that viewers can evaluate how Western artists and designers assimilated thematic and formal approaches from Japan. Left: “Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge,” 1857, from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo,” by Utagawa Hiroshige I (Japanese, 1797–1858). Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, 11.26350. Right: “The Water Lily Pond,” 1900, by Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Given in memory of Governor Alvan T. Fuller by the Fuller Foundation, 61.959. Photographs © 2015, MFA

When US Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Japan’s Edo Bay in 1853 and forced Japan to sign trade agreements with Europe and North America, the island nation opened up to the West after been virtually isolated for two centuries.  This set off a frenzy for all things Japanese, particularly art.  European and North American collectors and artists went crazy for the sophisticated woodblock prints of artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai and Japanese aesthetics had a profound impact on Western artists who were hungry for inspiration.  Meanwhile, the French coined the term “Japonisme” to describe works made in Europe and the U.S. that incorporated motifs and aesthetic principles from this new imagery from Japan.

Looking East: How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh, and Other Western Artists, which opened at the Asian Art Museum (AAM) on October 30, is a fascinating travelling exhibition organized by Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFAB).  It was just in Tokyo and makes the final stop of its international tour at the Asian.  It features over 170 artworks and decorative objects from the MFAB’s exquisite collection of Japanese art─the finest in the world outside of Japan─as well as its Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces from painters Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Mary Cassat, Edgar Degas, Paul Gaugin and others.

The novel thing about this exhibition is that the curators have placed Japanese and American and French artworks side by side so that viewers can evaluate how Western artists assimilated these new thematic and formal approaches, making it very engaging for all ages and experience levels, which the Asian excels at.  The exhibition is organized into four thematic areas─ women, city life, nature and landscape─ which explore the hallmarks of Japanese art around the turn of the century.  Dr. Helen Burnham, the MFAB Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings, is the head curator, while Dr. Laura Allen, curator of Japanese art, and Dr. Yuki Morishima, assistant curator of Japanese art, are the AAM curators responsible for its installation here in San Francisco.

“This is the first major exhibition from our collections to examine the profound impact Japanese art and culture had on Western artists around 1900,” said Helen Burnham .  “This was a seminal moment in Western and European art─both artists and collectors came to Japanese art with fresh eyes and a readiness to move past conventions.”

“What we’re doing at the Asian is exploring Asia’s global reference and Looking East is a perfect example,” said AAM director Jay Xu, who has made it his mission to rebrand the Asian, shifting the emphasis away from museum and more towards an exciting environment where  people can discover their own personal connections to Asian art and culture.

Xu pointed out that many people love Claude Monet’s familiar 1900 painting “The Water Lily Pond” and are even aware that Monet had an actual Japanese style arched bridge in Giverny but they’ll be surprised to see that the bridge in the Monet is “almost a copy” of the bridge in Utagawa Hiroshige I’s “Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge,” from his 1857 series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.”  With the artworks next to each other, such comparisons are possible.  In the landscape section of the exhibition, you’ll also see how Monet was inspired by a wind-blown tree from a Hiroshige print and used it in his “Seacoast at Trouvelle,” (1881).  Monet moves away from the Western established tools of perspective and shading and uses the tree to block out the composition’s vanishing point and bands of vibrant color to activate the painting’s surface.

Left: Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III), “[Actor Onoe Matsusuke II as] the Carpenter Rokusaburo” (c. 1814–15, from Kunisada’s series ‘Great Hit Plays,’ woodblock print, ink and color on paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection. Right: Vincent van Gogh, “Postman Joseph Roulin,” 1888, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Robert Treat Paine, 2nd. Photos © 2015, MFA, Boston) (click to enlarge)

Vincent van Gogh too was heavily inspired by Japanese art, particularly the small unpretentious woodblocks, snapshots of everyday life in Japan, that arrived in droves in France in the 1860’s often as wrapping for porcelain products that were exported to Europe.  These prints depicted kabuki actors, geisha and famous landscape scenes, like Mt Fuji.  When Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886, the Impressionist revolution was in full swing and he realized how important the Japanese influence was on the experimental Impressionists who rejected the rules of the French art academy.  Van Gogh built a collection of some two-hundred woodblocks prints and began to copy these compositions on with oil on canvas.

At the Asian, you’ll see van Gogh’s “Postman Joseph Roulin” from 1888 hanging with an Edo period woodblock from Utagawa Kunisada I of a Kabuki actor.  The influences here are subtle but the inspiration is clear, according to Asian curator Laura Allen who pointed out that Van Gogh and other Impressionists were increasingly interested in scenes of everyday life and that the physical surface of the woodblocks were fascinating to these artists.  “These woodblocks prints were produced quickly with layers of color─it would have taken too much time to use too many colors or patterns─so the compositions lacked depth, had large areas of flat space and relied on strong lines,” said Allen. Van Gogh’s composition has a very flat background, an angularity in the arms and is a portrait of a common working man in society, just like the Kabuki actors.

Left: Kikukawa Eizan, “Otome” (c. 1818–23), from the series ‘Eastern Figures Matched with the Tale of Genji,’ woodblock print, ink and color on paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection; right: Mary Stevenson Cassatt, “Maternal Caress” (Caresse maternelle) (c. 1902), oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Miss Aimee Lamb in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Horatio Appleton Lamb. Photos: © 2015, MFA, Boston) (Click to enlarge)

American born Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) left the U.S. at age 22 to study art in Paris where she developed an interest in the techniques of the Impressionists who were painting everyday scenes that stressed the importance of natural light and shadow in clear color.  She too was an avid collector of woodblock prints by Harunobi, Utamaro and Hisoshige.  In the 1890’s, she created a series of ten color etchings that permitted her to imitate the simplicity found in Japanese composition and color techniques.  At the Asian, her, “Maternal Caress” (circa 1902), an informal portrait of a child clinging to its mother’s neck as she brushes its cheek with a kiss, employs a high vantage point and the intimacy and affection between mother and child.  Both of these were common in Japanese art according to Helen Burnham.  Hanging close to the Cassatt is Kikugawa Eizan’s woodblock of a mother and child in a similar pose and we can feel the tender bond between them.

“Looking East” includes several Japanese and Western items with exquisite and chic design. Nature motifs featured prominently in the Japanese prints, lacquer ware, textiles, bronzes and ceramics that flooded Western markets in the late 1800s. Western artists found them inspirational and they became hallmarks of several major artistic movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as Art Nouveau. Left: Cut mulberry paper textile stencil, 1800–1900, Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) or Meiji period (1868–1912). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, RES.11.748. Right: Letter rack from the Grapevine desk set, 1900–1920, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany(American, 1848–1933), manufactured by Tiffany Studios. Metal and glass. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Anonymous gift in memory of John G. Pierce, Sr., RES.65.60. Photographs © 2015, MFA,

Interest in Japan grew wildly during the 1860’s as shops selling Japanese goods sprang up in Paris, London and other locales. Exotic kimonos and Japanese-style designs were coveted. Kimonos appeared in opera and theater productions and artists placed them in their paintings. Parts of kimono fabric were also used in western-style dresses and capes. This women’s silk taffeta dressing gown (circa 1900) was created for the Western market and retailed by Takashimaya. Elaborately embroidered with silk chrysanthemums, it represents the sumptuousness that was appreciated in the West. Typically, kimono designs sold in the West combined greenery and flowers of the four seasons─plum blossoms, cherry blossoms, irises, chrysanthemums─along with more abstract motifs such as undulating vertical lines or horizontal curves representing water. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Elizabeth Ann Coleman, 2001.933.1–2. Photograph © 2015, MFA, Boston.

 

Tis the Season─the catalogue is gift worthy:  At 127 pages, the exhibition’s stylish and informative catalogue Looking East: Western Artists and the Allure of Japan (about $26, 2015) is full of large photographs with chapters authored by curator/editor Helen Burnham, Sarah E. Thompson and Jane E. Braun, all from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, that reflect on the phenomena of Japonisme and its rich contributions to the West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Details: Looking East closes February 7, 2016.  The AAM is located at 200 Larkin Street near Civic Center.  Parking is easy at Civic Center Plaza garage which offers a discount with your validated AAM ticket. (Get it stamped upon entry to the museum.) Hours: Tues-Sun: 10-5; Thursdays until 9 (end Oct 8); closed Mondays. Admission:  AAM Members: free.  Adults: general admission w/Looking East $20 weekdays, $25 weekends; Seniors, students, youth (13-17) $15 weekdays, $20 weekends; child (12 and under) free. Reserve your tickets online here.