ABSTRACT

BY THE LATE nineteenth century, Paris had become the center of the artistic world. Artists from the Americas, the rest of Europe, and from many parts of Asia were flocking to live, observe, study and create in an atmosphere of intellectual exhilaration and aesthetic accomplishment. The sense that by living in Paris they were at the center of the excitement, part of an artistic society within a society, helped sustain several generations in their quest for a new and authentic means of artistic expression. The interchange between Paris and Berlin, Vienna, London, and New York have been much studied and commented upon, and more recently the travels of Scandinavian, eastern European, and Russian artists to Paris have come to be documented as well. The exhibition, however, sets out to explore the equally evocative links between Paris and Japan in that formative period from 1890 to 1930 when the traditions of modern Japanese art were being established. Japonisme, the effect of Japanese art on the French, is a well-known phenomenon, but the reciprocal and equally important effect of French art on the Japanese is the story that this exhibit will, at least in part, reveal. What follows here is a general sketch of the artistic activities of this period that focus on the significance of the French experience, and the French example, in the development of modern Japanese art. There were other European influences as well during the period; in particular, some Japanese artists were inspired by the example of German, English, and Spanish painters. The main focus of artistic relationships from 1890 to 1930, however, was that established between Paris and Tokyo.