From Manet to Warhol - Japonisme, Nabis
at the Goulandris Foundation, Athens.
This is the third post on this exhibition. You can see the first few posts here and here . If you don't want to read the introduction again go down to first photograph.
A wonderful exhibition, which gave me great pleasure. Firstly because it was great seeing paintings that I had seen before and loved. Secondly because some of it was new to me, and this includes artists I had not come across before, Maurice Denis, for example.
The ensemble of eighty three works of forty five artists, mostly paintings, which is on loan from the Swiss private collection, was assembled over three generations, affording us the opportunity to retrace the history of modern art from the 1880s until the present day.
Most of the major movements, currents and trends that have marked the evolution of painting are touched upon here in varying degrees of detail: Impressionism, Symbolism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Japonisme, Synthetism, the Nabis, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. They reflect the increasing changes imposed on perspective, colour and figuration, as well as the historical context in which they were conceived.
Japonisme:
The generic term of Japonisme includes all of the influences that affected French, then Western art after the development of trade between Europe and Japan starting in the second half of the 19th century. Fascinated by ukiyo-e, the artists were inspired by this unaccustomed approach to form, perspective and colour and integrated it into their work, each in his or her own manner. This is particularly visible in the work of Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh as well as the whole Neo-Impressionist group and the Nabis.
Paul Ranson, Tiger
For this drawing Paul Ranson was inspired by Kitagawa Utamaro's Tiger in the Bamboos. He respected the precepts of ukiyo-e by ignoring perspective and depth, but introduced a series of sinuous lines amid which the graceful silhouette of the tiger unfurls.
Edouard Vuillard, Seascape (Saint-Jacut), 1909, (blue-bound distemper on paper mounted on canvas)
Maurice Denis
When Denis participated in the creation of the Nabis group, he was barely 18 years old. Two years later he became their theoretician and was not reluctant to incorporate into his painting scenes that evoked travel, the original paradise and the fantastic, with a confirmed sense of modernity.
Maurice Denis, Legend of Chivalry (Three Young Princesses), 1893, (oil on canvas)
For this oil painting, strongly influenced by Japanese woodcut prints and more particularly by Parody of God Juro by Yashima Gakutei, Denis produced a reinterpretation of the Middle Ages. The garden that irresistibly recalls Millefleur tapestries is enlivened by three facets of his wife Marthe and two knights arriving at a gallop.
Maurice Denis, The Cook, 1893, (oil on canvas)
A devout Catholic, Denis reinterpreted here a biblical episode in which Jesus pays a visit to Martha and Mary's house. Denis entrusted the latter role to his wife Martha, whom he had recently married and who was to become thereafter his principal model. Influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, he simplified the forms and used thick contours for a composition that faithfully transcribed the Nabis' frame of mind.
Pierre Bonnard
Scene from the South of France.
Pierre Bonnard, Anchorage, 1929.
This ostensibly simple work is based on horizontals and as such gives us the sensation of limitless space, stabilised solely by the graphic motif of the guardrail.
Felix Vallotton, Rising Ride, Houlgate, 1913, (oil on canvas)
Large flat patches of colour that follow on from each other without attempting to create the illusion of depth.
Felix Vallotton, Evening, Honfleur or Peace and Quiet, 1909, (oil on canvas)
Nabis:
Around 1888 a group of young friends decided to create an unofficial artistic movement and christened themselves Nabis. Spurred on by Paul Serusier's painting The Talisman, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Buillard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Felix Vallotton and George Lacombe among others, united to form a group.
Influenced by Paul Gauguin, the Nabis intended to liberate painting from all naturalist restraints, to express their inner life and their feelings in the face of nature without trying to copy it. They had a great admiration for Japanese art, ukiyo-e in particular.
Felix Vallotton, Still Life with Blue Plate, 1922, (oil on canvas)
Under the pretence of a still life that united several banal objects, Vallotton turned his gaze on his youthful aspirations: his love of literature, for he was also a novelist, his admiration for 17th century Dutch masters, his adoration of nature and the refinement of porcelain manufactured in both Japan and Delft.
Paul Serusier, The Feast of Corpus Christi at Huelgoat, 1891-93, (tempera on canvas)
This is one of my favourite paintings in this collection. Serusier was influenced by Gauguin, in particular that of detaching from the real, but he was also inspired by his passion for ukiyo-e art.
Georges Lacombe, The Bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 1902-4, (oil on canvas)
P.S.
Ukiyo-e:
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings. The term ukiyo-e translates as 'picture(s) of the floating world'.
Earliest ukiyo-e works emerged in the 1670s. Colour prints were introduced gradually, and at first were only used for special commissions. By the 1740s, artists used multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour. By the 1760s full-colour production became standard, with ten or more blocks used to create each print.
Ukiyo-e was central to forming the West's perception of Japanese art in the late 19th century, particularly the landscape of Hokusai and Hiroshige. From the 1870s, Japonisme became a prominent trend and had a strong influence on the early French Impressionists such as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and Claude Monet, as well as influencing Post-Impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh, and Art Nouveau artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
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