Text by Geneviève Aitken, Christoph Dorsz, Sandra Gianfreda, Claire Guitton, Gregory Irvine, Peter Kropmanns, Michiko Mae, Ursula Perucchi-Petri, Belinda Thomson, Sabine Bradel, Ricard Bru, Ulrike Hofer, Antje Papist-Matsuo, Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau.
Japanese art is of fundamental importance for the development of modern art in Europe. Nearly all of the great nineteenth-century masters—from Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh to Pierre Bonnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Édouard Vuillard—embraced the charm of Japanese pictorial motifs and stylistic devices, developing them in their own work. Even Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso expressed enduring interest in Japan well into the twentieth century. Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh … Japanese Inspirations explores the most fascinating chapters of French art in the second half of the nineteenth century, in the phenomenon known as Japonisme. The catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies focus on the period between 1860 and 1910, the heyday of the craze for Japanese art in France. Alongside paintings and prints by artists active in France such as Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, the volume showcases an extensive selection of Japanese color woodcut prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro and others. Japanese artifacts are likewise juxtaposed with works by French artists such as Félix Bracquemond, Jean Carriès and Émile Gallé, inspiring a dialogue between works rarely considered in tandem. Featuring essays by well-known authors as well as younger scholars, this comprehensively illustrated catalogue sheds light on the most important aspects of this formative epoch and the productive exploration of Japan embarked upon by artists living and working in France.
Paul Gauguin's "Blue Trees, 'Your Turn Will Come, My Beauty!'" (1888) is reproduced from Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh … Japanese Inspirations.
In Steidl's wonderful catalog to the recent blockbuster show at Museum Folkwang Essen, Mae Michiko writes, "In the mid-nineteenth century, many artists began to sense that—owing to the constraints of academic classicism, historicism, naturalism and what could be referred to 'illusionism'—art in Europe had reached an impasse. These artists sought a new beginning beyond an artistic tradition characterized by such compositional principles as central perspective. In this crisis, Japanese color woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e presented Western artists with a way of seeing free of the restrictions posed by the hierarchical ranking of pictorial subjects and genres as adhered to by the European art tradition. Artists realized that this liberation from the conventions of the European tradition represented an opportunity for creating new art." Featured image is Gauguin's "Still Life with Three Puppies" (1888). continue to blog
Published to accompany Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations, Museum Folkwang Essen's recent exhibition of nineteenth-century Japonisme, Belinda Thomson begins her essay, "In 1899, the French artist Félix Régamey, on an official visit to Tokyo's Fine Arts School, was pressed for information about the French Impressionists. He had a striking reply for his Japanese hosts: 'There is no question that Japanese print-making has opened up many people's eyes. You should not get so excited about our impressionism, you were the ones who invented it." Featured image is Utagawa Hiroshige's "Plum Estate, Kameido" (1857). continue to blog
In Steidl's new release, Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations, the Museum Folkwang Essen's Ulrike Hofer writes, "In a letter written to his sister Willemien in September 1888, Van Gogh reports from Arles, where he had been staying since February: 'For myself, I don't need Japanese prints here, because I'm always saying to myself that I'm in Japan here. That as a result I only have to open my eyes and paint right in front of me what makes an impression on me.'" Featured image is Van Gogh's 1888 "Sower with Setting Sun." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 11 x 8.75 in. / 376 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $63 ISBN: 9783869308999 PUBLISHER: Steidl AVAILABLE: 6/23/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Steidl. Text by Geneviève Aitken, Christoph Dorsz, Sandra Gianfreda, Claire Guitton, Gregory Irvine, Peter Kropmanns, Michiko Mae, Ursula Perucchi-Petri, Belinda Thomson, Sabine Bradel, Ricard Bru, Ulrike Hofer, Antje Papist-Matsuo, Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau.
Japanese art is of fundamental importance for the development of modern art in Europe. Nearly all of the great nineteenth-century masters—from Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh to Pierre Bonnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Édouard Vuillard—embraced the charm of Japanese pictorial motifs and stylistic devices, developing them in their own work. Even Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso expressed enduring interest in Japan well into the twentieth century. Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh … Japanese Inspirations explores the most fascinating chapters of French art in the second half of the nineteenth century, in the phenomenon known as Japonisme. The catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies focus on the period between 1860 and 1910, the heyday of the craze for Japanese art in France. Alongside paintings and prints by artists active in France such as Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, the volume showcases an extensive selection of Japanese color woodcut prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro and others. Japanese artifacts are likewise juxtaposed with works by French artists such as Félix Bracquemond, Jean Carriès and Émile Gallé, inspiring a dialogue between works rarely considered in tandem. Featuring essays by well-known authors as well as younger scholars, this comprehensively illustrated catalogue sheds light on the most important aspects of this formative epoch and the productive exploration of Japan embarked upon by artists living and working in France.
