[ MAUKA MAKAI ]
Kunishiro Mitsutani utilized both Japanese and Western painting styles to create "Scarlet Rug."
Big impressions
‘Japan & Paris’ looks at the
East-West mix in art
SITUATED at the crossroads of East and West, Hawaii is the gateway to cross-cultural exploration. Our lives are saturated with multiculturalism, whether we're speaking pidgin or ordering a plate lunch. Cultural exchange is so fundamental to our coexistence that formalized, intellectual forays into the subject usually elicit a "Yeah, yeah, big deal" yawn in response. It's all "old hat" to us, right?
Well, hold onto those hats. The Honolulu Academy of Arts has assembled an exhibition that will take "big deal" to another level and obliterate bored yawns, with the likes of works by such masters as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. "Japan & Paris: Impressionism, Postimpressionism, and the Modern Era," which brings the masterworks of the French painters to Hawaii for the first time, explores the influence of Western-style painting on Japan's art world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
"Japan & Paris: Impressionism,
Where: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S. Beretania St.
Postimpressionism, and the Modern Era"When: Thursday through June 6
Times: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets: $15 adults; $10 children 6 to 17; children 5 and under admitted free, but no strollers or backpacks admitted.
Call: 532-8719
"People here are open to this kind of show," says Stephen Little, the academy's director, in reference to Hawaii's cross-cultural awareness. "This show is a dialogue between Europe and Japan. It's a dialogue that's still going on today."
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT for "Japan & Paris" begins in the late 1800s, when Japan set its sights on entering the Western arena of modernization. It was common for Japanese industrialists to collect art, and with an eye toward the West, some began collecting modernist paintings.
Likewise, Japanese artists began exploring the Western art world.
"Some artists studied in Japan and traveled to Europe, where they would rub shoulders with other artists in Paris. It was where artists congregated, where they could talk art, sell art and collect art," says Jennifer Saville, the Honolulu Academy of Art's curator of Western art. "Japanese artists built an active circle of Western painters. It was a very exciting time in Japan."
Impressionist works, such as Pablo Picasso's "Head of a Woman," influenced Japan's art scene in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Honolulu Academy of Arts' "Japan & Paris" show examines this cross-cultural exchange.
The modernist emphasis of individual artistic expression paralleled nicely with the focus of individualism in Japanese painting, but in other ways, Western and Japanese painting styles were distinct.
Oil on canvas, fundamental to Western painting, was a foreign notion to the Japanese, who used ink and ground pigments on silk and paper.
"In responding to Western paintings, Japanese artists assimilated Western modes of painting into their work," Saville says. "But of course, they did not want to just mimic or imitate the Western painters. They maintained personal and national independence in creating new Japanese art."
"Scarlet Rug," a 1932 nude by Kunishiro Mitsutani that is included in the show, illustrates this merging of Japanese and Western styles.
"Mitsutani is working very deliberately for a distinctly Japanese style of painting," Saville says. "The technique is Western: oil on canvas. The nude, which represents the most fundamental expressions of beauty, virtue and truth in Western art, is not standard in Japan. In fact, this painting created quite a controversy. It was even delegated to a separate room.
"The horizon on the picture is high -- that means the composition spills down the picture's surface. This is very Japanese. The dog is an Asian dog, and the blossoms are an Asian-style arrangement. So there's a wonderful joining of Western technique and subject matter with, stylistically, an expression of the artist's cultural heritage."
"Odalisque with Arms Raised" by Henri Matisse
THE ACADEMY is the only museum worldwide to show this group of more than 50 paintings, loaned from 28 Japanese collections and one American collection. Some of the artwork has never been shown outside Japan before.
Alongside the works of the French artists are those of Japanese artists such as Kume Keiichiro, Maeta Kanji, Mitsutani Kunishiro and Yorozu Tesugoro, who were instrumental in introducing Western modes of expression to Japan.
"Japan & Paris," with its cross-cultural vein and unparalleled artwork, is a good example of the direction the academy is heading toward, director Little says. "My criteria is mainly quality. High quality speaks for itself with high attendance."
Special tickets required to view "Japan & Paris" will help cover the cost of the show, which is expected to exceed $1 million.
The academy has been marketing "Japan & Paris" locally, nationally and internationally, and Little says he wants to make efforts "to attract the 6 million visitors to Hawaii each year."
This show is a grand way to start.
"'Japan & Paris' is a beautiful show that everyone can enjoy," Little says. "There is no substitute for standing in the presence of great art."
ON THE COVER: Pierre Bonnard's "Femme Nue dans le Cabinet de Toilette" is among the French Impressionist works that will be on display in Hawaii for the first time at the Honolulu Academy of Arts beginning Thursday.
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Know the terms
» Impressionism: A movement in French painting, associated particularly with the artists Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The art movement is characterized by the use of a bright palette, broken brushwork and an emphasis on depictions of contemporary life and landscape.» Postimpressionism: The artists associated with Postimpressionism -- Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat -- shared a dissatisfaction with Impressionism's blurring of form resulting from the fragmented brushstrokes that substituted for a traditional drawn line. The achievements of the four artists laid the groundwork for a Modern art based largely on concepts and emotions, rather than on the more objective appearance of reality.
-- From the Honolulu Academy of Arts
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Related events
Here are related events the Honolulu Academy of Arts is running in conjunction with "Japan & Paris." All take place at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S. Beretania St. Call 532-8700 for more information.» Symposium on "Japan & Paris"
Doris Duke Theatre, 7:30 to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday
Offers an in-depth look at the show's Impressionist works, with keynote speaker Katsumi Miyazaki, deputy director of the Bridgestone Museum of Art. Free; seating on a first-come, first-served basis.» "European Modernism, 1860-1930: Prints from the Academy Collection"
Through June 20
Lithographs, etchings and woodcuts by such artists as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso.» "Influencing Paris: Japanese Prints Collected by European Artists"
Through June 27
Highlights some of the most famous ukiyo-e prints, which influenced the painters from the French Impressionist movement.» "Art & Life in Paris & the Countryside: Impressionism/Postimpressionism"
Through July 31
Investigates the lives and times of prominent French Impressionist and Postimpressionist artists and their distinctive styles of paintings through interactive activity stations.
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Film series
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is presenting foreign films, documentaries, movie classics and independent films that share themes about Japan, Paris and/or art. All films are showing at the Doris Duke Theatre at the academy. Admission is $5. Call 532-8700 or the theater's recorded information line at 532-8768."Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times" and "Yves Saint Laurent, 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris" (France, 2002, directed by David Teboul): The long-standing relationship between Japanese and French fashion enjoys another resurgence today, and the legendary French couturier is the subject of these two documentaries, which include current and archival interviews from the 1960s and '70s; 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.
"Triplets of Belleville" (France, 2003, directed by Sylvain Chomet): Animated film that's "the most outlandishly visual film of the year, (taking) us into a world that can barely be described," says the Los Angeles Times; 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Saturday and April 13; and 4 p.m. next Sunday.
"Utamaro o meguru gonin no onna" (Utamaro and His Five Women) (Japan, 1946, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi): Claude Monet and other French Impressionists were highly influenced by Kitagawa Utamaro's woodblock prints of women; 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 14.
"Un Film Parle" (A Talking Picture) (Portugal/France/Italy, 2003, directed by Manoel de Oliveira): Catherine Deneuve stars as a history professor who takes her young daughter on a cruise to the magical civilizations of the Mediterranean. John Malkovich also stars; 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 15 and 7:30 p.m. April 19 and 20.
"Lust for Life" (U.S., 1956, directed by Vincente Minnelli): Fictionalized biography of Vincent Van Gogh, in which Kirk Douglas was nominated for an Academy Award as Van Gogh and Anthony Quinn, as Paul Gauguin, won an Oscar; 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 21.
"Kurosawa" (Japan/U.S./U.K., 2000, directed by Adam Low): The documentary on the life and work of the Japanese filmmaker utilizes archival footage, photographs, paintings and memorabilia from the Kurosawa family collection; 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 22.
"Donzoko" (The Lower Depths) (Japan, 1956, directed by Akira Kurosawa): In 1936, director Jean Renoir, son of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, filmed his French adaptation of Gorky's play dealing with social class. In 1957, Kurosawa directed his own adaptation -- a surprisingly comical tale transposed to Japan, focusing on the daily tribulations of a group of lower-class people living in a small tenement. The ensemble cast includes Toshiro Mifune; 7:30 p.m. April 23, 24, 26 and 27; and 4 p.m. April 25.
"Moulin Rouge" (U.K./France, 1956, directed by John Huston): Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Jose Ferrer and Zsa Zsa Gabor star in this fictionalized dramatization, "a bounty of gorgeous color pictures of the Parisian café world at the century's turn," reports the New York Times; 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 28.
"French Can Can" (France, 1955, directed by Jean Renoir): Jean Gabin stars as the Moulin Rouge nightclub owner who rediscovers the cancan. Renoir was honored with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1975 and the French Legion of Honor in 1977; 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 29 and 7:30 p.m. April 30.
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