I visited this exhibition at the British Museum, it had received mixed reviews, Jonathan Jones in the Guardian gave it 5 stars, but others were much less generous. I went with an open mind to see how relevant it may be to my study of Japonisme.

It made me think much more widely of the topic of Orientalism. The exhibition acknowledged the comments of those such as Edward Said that Orientalism was mainly a Western construct to continue the colonial attitude and actions of the West towards eastern civilisations. It also had some interesting exhibits of ways in which eastern art had influenced the west, whether through subtle influence or overt appropriation.

One such influence was on the design and patterns used in tiles. The exhibition displayed alongside each other tiles produced in the Ottoman empire and in the West – the influence (copying even) of the eastern work being effectively displayed. This was also true of ceramics produced in East and West.

The exhibition confronted the type of Orientalist painting that Said stated upheld the colonial subjugation of eastern countries. Paintings such as The Snake Charmer by Ettore Simonetti were displayed with the gallery notes making clear that many of the artists had never visited the area or knew much about the subject, merely reinforcing existing stereotypes by using second hand descriptions and tales to produce images that portrayed indigenous people as being lazy with little or no sense of responsibility.

This was particularly true of images of the harem, which western artists would never have been admitted to, nevertheless they produced detailed images based on little more than their own fertile imaginations. The gallery notes explain that even though he had never visited the Middle East or North Africa, Ingres “regularly portrayed harems and odalisques. Placing nude women in such interiors made the images acceptable to polite European and North American society, which would otherwise have viewed them as obscene”.

One of the more interesting aspects of the exhibition was contemporary artists response to orientalist paintings. Raeda Saadeh took the Odalisque image and reimagined it for the present day.

Inci Eviner used Antoine-Ignace Melling’s 1819 design for a harem to produce a video which questioned the way in which western audiences view eastern images.

Overall the exhibition widened my appreciation of Orientalism, it illustrated the concept of colonial subjugation and how this manifested itself in some paintings. But it also acknowledged the influence of eastern art forms on the west, more so in terms of design and particularly ceramics.

The exhibition attempted to give a balanced view of Oriental influence on he west, it acknowledged the colonial stereotypes presented by some painters, with the gallery notes stating “Most artists resorted to their imaginations, using the backdrop of the harem as an excuse to paint nude women. This invasive approach was, in many ways, a metaphor for the Orientalist approach to the region”.

This will inform my study of Japonisme in considering whether it is a case of influence, appropriation or western imperialism (or a combination of any two or more of those).

Having come across the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures through the library it runs, I also discovered that it puts on Monthly lectures on differing topics. The November lecture was given by Emura Tomoko who is Head of the Archives Section at the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Tobunken). She was introduced a specialist in history of pre-modern Japanese art with a particular interest in paintings by Rinpa artists.

She started by describing how the expression of the seasons took different forms, for example folding screens and hanging scrolls. The images frequently incorporated Waka poems; “The word waka means ‘Japanese poem,’ and it is a form so basic to Japanese literature that Japanese still study and write it today” (What Is a Waka? s.d.). The form of poetry, the Haiku, with which we are probably more familiar, derives from the Waka.

Around the 10^th century poems and calligraphy were greatly enjoyed, people would compose poems while looking at paintings on folding screens. The poems were then attached to the screen. These folding screens provided a convenient format for paintings, there could be several panels and would be looked at when sitting on the floor as opposed to the western tradition of hanging paintings on a wall at eye level when standing.

Hanging scrolls were also used for paintings, these were usually displayed in alcoves in a house to be admired by viewers. They were generally displayed for special events and, when the event was over, were taken down, rolled up, and stored in a box. Owners were encouraged to keep the scrolls on display only for the duration of the specific event.

One of the most significant art schools in Japan is the Kano school. “The Kano school was the longest lived and most influential school of painting in Japanese history; its more than 300-year prominence is unique in world art history”. (Department of Asian Art s.d.).

We heard how different flowers represent the seasons in traditional Japanese art:

• Plum and Cherry                                              –              Spring
• Peony                                                                      –              Summer
• Chrysanthemum and Maple leaf            –              Autumn
• Camellia                                                                 –              Winter

Kano Eitoku was described as one of the most remarkable artists of the Kano School. A six-panel screen of his was used as an illustration. Titled Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons it illustrates how the progression of the seasons can be shown across a single scene, through the inclusion of birds and flowers from different seasons on the same screen.

The talk moved on to the combination of painting and poetry, mention was made of an album of Waka poems drawn onto paintings. The album was of poems on pictures of flowersand grasses of the four seasons; the painting was by Tawaraya Sotatsu and the calligraphy by Hon’ami Koetsu. This led to discussion of the Rimpa (or Rinpa) school. “Rimpa refers to the school and style of images developed by Hon’ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu in the early Edo period (1615-1868). Promoting its distinct decorative style made in response to past works, Rimpa school created its own unique aesthetics through decades of reiterations” (Yoko 2015).

“Central to the Rinpa aesthetic is the evocation of nature as well as eye-catching compositions that cleverly integrate text and image” (Carpenter 2012 p11). The Rinpa style continues to the present day, but the next Rinpa artist mentioned in the lecture was Ogata Korin. He too painted Flowers and Grasses of the Four Seasons, originally as a handscroll then as a folding screen. He used the conventional technique of showing different seasonal flowers on the same screen to illustrate the passage of time.

One of Korin’s best known works is Irises.

“Using only green and blue on a gold background, he vividly depicts stylized clumps of irises in a composition that is simple, clear and rhythmical, foreshadowing a modern graphic style” (Tamashige 2015).

What was interesting from the lecture was that studies have revealed that some of the Irises have been stencilled on to the screen, rather than them all having been freely hand painted. However, because the screens, in normal use, present the flowers in a zig-zag pattern, this is not at all obvious. I thought that this was a good example of the need to present works of art in the way that they were initially designed. Some galleries might present such a screen flat against a wall, but this is not the original intention of the artist, and the viewer might get more from seeing the work as originally intended.

This work is also a good example of how Japanese art (in this style) focuses on short-lived beauty – most flowers bloom and last for just a few days. The lecturer stated that, traditionally, Japanese people felt affection for transient images. What the artist is doing is preserving that moment. Traditional Japanese flower painting captures ephemeral moments in transient scenes and makes them permanent in the painting.

 

REFERENCES

Carpenter, J.T. (2012) Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Department of Asian Art (s.d.) The Kano School of Painting, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kano/hd_kano.htm (Accessed on 26 November 2019)

Kōrin, O. (s.d.) Irises. At: http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/ (Accessed on 22 August 2019)

Tamashige, S. (2015) Korin: the late bloomer with innovative in style | The Japan Times. At: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/05/05/arts/korin-late-bloomer-innovative-style/ (Accessed on 27 November 2019)

Yoko, K. (2015) ‘Museums in Japan‘ In: e-Magazine, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures Summer (12) [online] At: https://sainsbury-institute.org/e-mag/issue-12-summer-2015/museums-in-japan/ (Accessed on 27 November 2019)

I read a very positive review in The Guardian of the exhibition Hogarth: Place and Progress which is at the Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. This was the first I had heard of the exhibition, but reading that it brought together in one place all of Hogarth’s ‘series’ – paintings and engravings – it seemed too great an opportunity to miss.

I admire Hogarth’s work and the narratives that he tells within his work, his comments on the morality of his time. In a previous photography module (Photography 1 Context and Narrative) for this course I had produced a contemporary version of Hogarth engraving The Politician.

So this was an exceptional opportunity to see all of his series together in the one place.

I had not visited the Sir John Soane’s Museum before. It is in three neighbouring houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The first originally purchased by Sir John Soane as his residence and the other two purchased at a later date to house his growing art collection.

For a museum or gallery, the rooms are really quite small and the exhibition is arranged over three floors. The layout of the museum and exhibition feels somewhat cramped and some of the Hogarth images have a room to themselves whereas others are in with works from the museum’s permanent collection.  As the exhibition is spread over a number of rooms on three floors, it can sometimes feel confusing ti find the next section of the exhibition. Normally this lack of continuity might lessen the impact of an exhibition, but somehow it felt very appropriate for this one. Hogarth’s series are teeming with life, at times seemingly confused, but always with a strong narrative linking the scenes. It seemed a positive bonus to be looking at them in rather cramped rooms with less than optimal lighting and lots of other visitors, it added to the experiencing of London as Hogarth saw it.

It was a superb opportunity to see all of the series together, I had seen Marriage a la Mode at the National Gallery and Gin Lane and Beer Street elsewhere, but there were many others that I had only seen in books or online before.

One point of interest was in ‘The Four Steps of Cruelty’ – all 4 scenes were shown in the original engraving, but a different version of scenes 3 and 4 were exhibited in a later woodcut version. Apparently Hogarth requested this to produce plates that were larger, simpler and cheaper  in order to reach a wider audience. While the original was more refined in the lines and drawing, the woodcut gave a rougher, more aggressive feel to what were already very strong and violent images.

In most of the images that Hogarth produced , there was  a complex story of morality and vice, but the narrative of the individual series was usually quite simple – the consequences of following the path of righteousness or not.

The series were very powerful and compelling to see, especially in the unique setting of the Sir John Soane Museum.

This was the first major exhibition of Krasner’s work in 50 years. I was interested to see it and to consider the influences on her work and the context under which it was produced.

Some of her influences were shown in the very first exhibition room. It contained a few, very vibrant and colourful, quite small abstract paintings. But one wall of the room simply showed a series of very large scale photos of flowers. The gallery notes explained how, in 1945, Krasner moved to Springs (near East Hampton, NY). Her father’s death, the year before, had ‘left her unable to paint anything but what she affectionately called her grey slabs‘.

Now, surrounded by nature, a ‘new kind of imagery was coming through, she worked on her ‘Little Images – vibrant, jewel-like abstractions, pulsing with an even rhythm’.

The photos on the wall were taken by her friend, Ray Eames who ‘documented the wildlife in Springs that inspire this work’.

 

The curator had, very effectively, displayed the paintings and photos together to express the way  surroundings had influenced the images produced.

A couple of examples of the society in which Krasner operated, were shown later in the exhibition. At the age of 19 she was due to study at the National Academy of Design. She was obviously extremely talented and, in later interviews, would talk of how ‘the Academy had refused to believe her capable’ of a plein-air portrait she had submitted.

She protested about this and was promoted to the life-drawing class, but she did not like the traditional approach of the Academy, which she described as ‘a sterile atmosphere of …. congealed mediocrity’.

Another example of the times in which she was working came after the Wall Street Crash. The depression that followed forced her to leave the National Academy. In 1937 she was awarded a scholarship to attend classes at the Hans Hoffman School. The images in the ‘Life Drawing’ room showed how Krasner made her first venture into abstraction attracting the comment from Hoffman that her work was so good ‘you would not know it was done by a woman’.

Seeing the exhibition and the paintings themselves was a great opportunity, but the curator had also effectively introduced many descriptions of the  influences and contexts under which Krasner produced her work.