Contemporary Art in Japan

art

Ayami Nishimura by Rankin

Make up for art at Diesel

By: C.B. Liddell | Sep 13, 2012 

Cyber Gothic © Ayami Nishimura, Rankin

In the long history of art the earliest canvas was probably our own skin, as primitive man first took to daubing his uniquely hairless hide with colorful unguents. But skin art is not just confined to primitives or dudes with tattoos. The most widespread art form in the world today is female make-up, a movement with billions of participants and a massive turnover.

Who are the Picassos and Michelangelos of this army of illusionists? One of the best in terms of technique and a readiness to unleash her imagination is Japanese make-up artist Ayami Nishimura, the subject of a vivid (and free) exhibition at Shibuya’s Diesel Art Gallery.

The exhibition presents over 20 high-quality photographic prints of Nishimura’s work taken by celebrity photographer Rankin, as part of a book project by the two. While Rankin clearly knows his onions, what grabs you are the imaginative leaps made by Nishimura, who moved to London drawn by the punk, goth, and other scenes that have always infested its streets.

One image uses the glossy lips of a black-painted model to make a leopard-like pattern on her skin, creating a naked, smoking beast. Another turns volumes of Shakespeare into a stylish headdress! Yet another design turns the human ear of a model into a kind of prism, splitting light into separate colors that then swim over her face. While some veer into kid-in-the-candy-store overkill, Nishimura is also adept at “less is more,” as shown by the snowy Rasta of “Cyber Gothic” [pictured] who cries rainbow tears.

Diesel Art Gallery, until Nov 9

From:

Thursday, Sep. 20, 2012

The art of photography

By JEFF MICHAEL HAMMOND

Special to The Japan Times

This weekend sees the fourth installment of "Tokyo Photo" — Japan's first international photography fair, and now the biggest event of its kind in Asia. Since its inception in 2009, the fair has cast its net wide, and this year has more than 35 agencies and galleries taking part. Over half of them are from Tokyo, and they are joined by those from Shanghai, Berlin and Amsterdam, as well as some from New York, Los Angeles, London and elsewhere. With names such as Anders Peterson, Mika Ninagawa and Naoya Hatakeyama involved, the fair will have more than 1,000 photos on display, ranging from documentary and fashion to art photography.

Beauty and the beard: "VLM Kate — Groom" (2005) by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin COURTESY OF GAGOSIAN GALLERY

With such scope, one might imagine that maintaining a focus and creating a coherent show would be a challenge, but as Louise Neri, director of the international Gagosian Gallery told The Japan Times, "One of the most distinctive characteristics of contemporary photography is its fluidity, which is paradigmatic of the times we live in. An image can start out in one context and migrate to others. Or one context can influence the reception of the same image in another."

llustrating this point is the featured work of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, represented by Gagosian Gallery, which is just as relevant on the walls of a leading New York art gallery as it was on the cover of Vogue or The Face. Amid the ongoing brouhaha over the digital manipulation of images, from issues of truth to the portrayal of unnaturally thin women in fashion photography, van Lamsweerde and Matadin use similar techniques to different effect. They graft men's features onto the female form or otherwise de-naturalize and hybridize the image, commenting on both our sexual identities and the representation of our bodies in the media. Tokyo Photo reminds us, though, that this kind of boundary-breaking, and surreal imagery has its roots stretching far back. The striking commercial images from the 1970s and '80s by Guy Bourdin, which utilize narrative, enigma and intriguing juxtapositions, have long been accepted as fine art, as much as fashion photography, and they owe much to Bourdin's mentor and teacher in Paris, the surrealist Man Ray, who himself had made the journey from fine art into fashion photography as early as the 1920s.

Untitled, from Michael Ackerman's series "Fiction" (1995-2000) © MICHAEL ACKERMAN, COURTESY GALERIE VU', PARIS

Neri sees the rise of digital technology today less as a threat to professional photography than as a positive development allowing more people to get involved.

"This has greatly aided general awareness and visual literacy, particularly with regard to the photographic image," she said. "Consequently, this means that professional photographers are freer than ever before to experiment."

See for yourself at Tokyo Photo if you agree with Neri's observation that, as a result, professional photography has become "increasingly conceptual, nuanced, complex and subtle".

"Tokyo Photo 2012" at Tokyo Midtown Hall runs from Sep 28-Oct 1; open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. ¥1,500. www.tokyophoto.org.

Important Cultural Properties "Mother and Child" Uemura Shoen 1934

Special Exhibition for the 60th Anniversary National Museum of Modern Art art in Brookings! 100 years of modern Japanese art Best Selection Art Will Thrill You:! The Essense of Japanese Art Important Cultural Properties at the MOMAT (including one long term loan work) The collection at the main building of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT) now has thirteen pieces that are designated as Important Cultural Properties by the Japanese government, comprising eight Japanese-style paintings, four oil paintings and one sculpture. This section presents the thirteen Important Cultural Properties in the order of production date with brief comments. *Two will be designated Important Cultural Properties later this year. Please consult the web page Modern Japanese Art from the Museum Collection to know pieces on display. Do not miss Japanese-style paintings that are shown for only limited periods for preservation purposes. Harada Naojiro (1863-1899) Kannon Bodhisattva Riding the Dragon 1890 oil on canvas 272.0 x 181.0 cm Long term loan (Collection of Gokokuji Temple) The large canvas features Kannon in a white robe riding the dragon, with a willow branch in the right hand and a water cup in the left hand. Having studied in Germany, Harada made this piece referring to European religious paintings and Japanese pieces showing Kannon. Applying realistic representation of oil painting to a traditional Japanese subject, this ambitious work generated fierce debates about its theme and vivid depiction when first shown. (Designated on June 8, 2007)  Page Top Hishida Shunso (1874-1911) Bodhisattva Kenshu 1907 color on silk hanging scroll 185.7 x 99.5 cm Answering to the question from Chinese empress Wu hou (years of reign: 690–705), Bodhisattva Kenshu, the third founder of the Kegon sect of Buddhism, is said to have explained the doctrine of Kegon Sutra using a gold lion in the garden as an example. This piece shows a notable technique in which minute patterns are drawn on stippled colors. Hishida used to depict the air and light not with lines but with shades of colors. In this piece, the painter advanced his style to the next level, succeeding in expressing perspective and plasticity with subtle changes of color tones. (Designated on June 6, 1979)  Page Top Shinkai Taketaro (1868-1927) Bathing 1907 plaster 189.0 x 46.0 x 39.0 cm (A bronze cast after the original plaster will be shown.) Shinkai Taketaro studied sculpture in Germany and aimed to merge Western techniques and Eastern subjects. This is a pioneering nude sculpture in Japan that Shinkai sent to the first Bunten (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition). Using a Japanese model in a reserved pose with a Tempyo-style chignon and a thin cloth in her hand, the piece shows a human body idealized in a European fashion. It exemplifies marriage of Japanese and Western art in a neat, graceful figure. (The plaster designated on June 27, 2000)  Page Top Yorozu Tetsugoro (1885-1927) Nude Beauty 1912 oil on canvas 162.0 x 97.0 cm gift of Yagi Masaharu Nude Beauty was Yorozu's thesis painting at the Tokyo Art School (now Tokyo University of the Arts). The flame-like movements of the weeds and simplified figure of the nude show influences of Matisse and van Gogh, whose works were beginning to be introduced in Japanese media at that time. The painter's intense colors and touches are said to have perplexed his teachers including Seiki Kuroda. This is a monumental work heralding the Taisho period (1912-26) when people advocated freedom of expression and respect for individuality. (Designated on December 4, 2000)  Page Top Kishida Ryusei (1891-1929) Road Cut Through a Hill 1915 oil on canvas 56.0 x 53.0 cm Depicting a scene near Yoyogi where Kishida lived at the time, the painter tried to come close to nature again with an eye that had gone through influence of classical Western paintings. According the artist himself, it was a time when he began to escape from “influence of classical” Western paintings, and “the desire to directly face the mass of nature itself” returned. Closely composed and showing a unique spatial grasp that overwhelms the viewer, this is a highly prominent piece among paintings of the Taisho period (1912-26). (Designated on June 22, 1971)  Page Top Kawai Gyokudo (1873-1957) Parting Spring 1916 color on paper, a pair of six-fold screens 183.0 x 390.0 cm each In a late-spring gorge where cherry petals flutter down, three waterwheel boats are moored on the river. During his sketching trips in 1915 and 1916, Gyokudo visited Nagatoro gorge where he enjoyed boating trips down the river. Using the scene of the gorge as the starting point, the painter added cherry petals fluttering down like a light snow to produce this masterpiece. Interested particularly in the repeating rhythm of the waterwheels’ rotation, Gyokudo said he took the greatest pains in depicting the rapid flow of the water to express the motion. Combining the diverse appearances of nature—its grandeur as well as the subtlety seen in the changing seasons—and the daily life of the local people, this piece succeeds in creating a world brimming with poetic sentiment. (Designated on June 22, 1971)  Page Top Tsuchida Bakusen (1887-1936) Serving Girl at a Spa 1918 color on silk, a pair of two-fold screens 197.6 x 195.5 cm each Juxtaposing a mountain range in the style of Yamato-epainting of the Heian period (794-1185), luxuriant pine trees reminiscent of wall paintings of the Momoyama period (1568-1600), and a sensual woman dressed in bright red reminding us of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bakusen produced Serving Girl at a Spa in sympathy and consultation with different styles of various times and places. This piece was sent to the first exhibition organized by the Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai (National Creative Painting Association), a group of artists that challenged the dominance of the Bunten (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition). An intellectual integration of natural and feminine beauty—landscape and figure painting in fusion—Serving Girl at a Spa was an ambitious work by young Bakusen who aimed to create new modern Japanese-style painting free from traditions and conventions. (Designated on June 7, 1999)  Murakami Kagaku (1888-1939) Kiyohime at the Hidaka River 1919 color on silk, hanging scroll 142.5 x 55.7 cm This is a piece based on a legend concerning Dojoji temple in which Kiyohime, a woman in the reign of Emperor Daigo (885-930), fell in love with a priest, and pursued him to the bank of the Hidaka River. Carried away by rage, she eventually got the priest incinerated with flames that she herself kindled. Kagaku chose the scene just before the climax of the story when the heroine transformed herself into a huge serpent. Instead of suggesting a consuming grudge, however, the painter presents Kiyohime with her eyes closed, accompanied by a lonesome pine tree and a stick thrown away, to convey sadness and grief. This work succeeds in expressing the depth of human emotion with subdued colors and delicate lines. (Designated on June 7, 1999)  Page Top Nakamura Tsune (1887-1924) Portrait of Vasilii Yaroshenko 1920 oil on canvas 45.5 x 42.0 cm gift of Osato Ichitaro The model of this portrait is Vasilii Yaroshenko (1889-1952), a blind, then young Russian poet and Esperantist who appears also in a short novel of Lu Xun. Yaroshenko first came to Japan in 1914, then went wandering about Asian countries, and returned to Japan in 1919 to become a dependent at Nakamuraya, a baker in Shinjuku, Tokyo. This piece is characterized by soft brushwork reminiscent of the style of Renoir that Tsune greatly admired at that time, and the small number of colors used—chiefly the yellowish brown range. This piece unveils the deep spirituality of the model in placid light. (Designated on June 11, 1977)  Page Top Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) Metempsychosis 1923 sumi on silk, scroll 55.3 x 4,070.0 cm part of the work A water drop that appears in the vapor of the air travels through a mountain stream, and grows into a great river that flows into the sea where waves form a dragon that rises up into the sky. This is a forty-meter scroll painting depicting the life of water on a grand scale. And that’s not the end of the story. The dragon in the sky turns into water drops again to live a new life. Taikan made free use of various techniques of suibokuga (sumi painting) to express his imposing view of nature and life where the vicissitude of all things was seen in the flow of water. (Designated on June 15, 1967)  Page Top Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1972) Portrait of San'yutei Encho 1930 color on silk, hanging scroll 138.5 x 76.0 cm San'yutei Encho (1839-1900) was a rakugo (comic monologue) storyteller in the Meiji period (1868-1912) known for his masterful presentation of tales of human compassion (ninjo-banashi). Kiyokata was familiar with Encho because he was an old friend of the painter’s father. In this piece showing the moment just before Encho begins his story, the storyteller kneels in the formal seiza position, fixing his eyes on the audience beyond the teacup. Kiyokata painted Encho's personal appearance relying on memory, conveying the master's intensity and tension through the piercing eyes and the firm mouth. The kimono, cushion and props were carefully depicted based on sketches of the relics. (Designated an Important Cultural Property on May 29, 2003)  Page Top Uemura Shoen (1875-1949) Mother and Child  1934 color on silk, framed, 168.0×115.5cm A baby leans forward with one hand holding its mother’s kimono at the neck, and the mother holds the baby tight in her arms with an affectionate gaze. One common scene in everyday life has been elevated to a noble mother-and-child painting. Her mother’s death made Shoen often turn to the subject of motherhood. With this memorable piece first shown at the Imperial Academy’s art exhibition in autumn of the year of her mother’s death, Shoen broke new ground in her later years. Her portrayal of the skin, chignons and clothes shows her sensitivity and techniques that the painter acquired producing bijinga (‘pictures of beautiful women’). (Designated an Important Cultural Property on June 27, 2011)  Page Top Yasuda Yukihiko (1884-1978) Camp at Kisegawa  1940/41 color on paper, a pair of six-fold screens, 167.7×374.0cm each This is a scene from Azuma kagami, a historical account of the Kamakura shogunate, in which Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a younger brother of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the shogunate, hurries to the camp at Kisegawa after hearing that Yoritomo had raised an army. The stern composition with large blanks conveys the tension between the two warriors exchanging glances, creating chilliness that seems to suggest the tragedy awaiting the brothers. The painter is said to have consulted Yoritomo’s (now considered Ashikaga Tadayoshi’s) portrait housed in Jingo-ji, Kyoto, a Bishamonten (Vaishravana) statue from the Heian period (794–1185) for Yoshitsune’s image, and the descriptions in Gikeiki, an popular account of the life of Yoshitsune, for the costume, to produce this extraordinarily elaborate masterpiece of history painting. (Designated an Important Cultural Property on June 27, 2011) Then there are some great exhibitions of Western Art, including the Pre-Raphaelites... Edward Burne-Jones A Pre-Raphaelite Master in Tokyo’s Little London By: C.B. Liddell | Aug 1, 2012 | Issue: 958 | 0 Comments | 797 views

The Death of Medusa (1882). Courtesy of Southhampton City Art Gallery

The Doom Fulfilled (Perseus Slaying the Sea Serpent) (1882). Courtesy of Southhampton City Art Gallery

If you exit Tokyo Station on the Marunouchi side there’s a slight chance that you might think you’ve wandered into a time warp. First, there is the Tokyo Station Hotel, built in the English neo-baroque style that was in vogue when it opened in 1914. Next, there is the art-deco-influenced façade of the Tokyo Central Post Office Building, dating from the 1930s, and now incorporated into a new 38-storey tower. Then, there is the Mitsubishi Ichigokan, a carbon copy of a prestigious late Victorian office building that formerly occupied the site, but which was built and opened only two years ago as the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum.

This preserved, restored and rebuilt piece of retro architecture helps give the area some of the old atmosphere that once earned it the nickname “Number One London.” It is also the perfect setting for an exhibition of the work of Edward Burne-Jones, one of the great painters of what was the greatest artistic movement of the 19th century, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Yes—the Impressionists are overrated!

Unlike the Impressionists, who were obsessed with the visible and the mundane, the Pre-Raphaelites focused on the spiritual, the emotional, the mythic, and the symbolic, creating works of art that can still move us. The Impressionists by contrast have mainly ended up on biscuit tins. While pleasant to look at, their nice-looking lily ponds and fuzzy haystacks do little to uplift the human soul.

The spirituality of the Pre-Raphaelite movement is signaled by its name. Rather than the works of the high Renaissance, like those of da Vinci, Michelangelo, or Raphael, which reflected the “mechanistic” application of rules of perspective, the movement looked back to the more pietistic painters of the early Renaissance for inspiration.

The forthright Christian message is most obvious inThe Merciful Knight (1863), which shows a statue of Christ coming to life to bless an armored warrior who has spared an opponent. This theme of statues coming to life was clearly dear to Burne-Jones’s heart. As you wind your way through the intricate passages that link the intimate galleries of this museum, you’ll come upon various series of works, including the enchantingPygmalion (1878), based on the classical Greek myth of the sculptor who falls in love with a statue of a beautiful woman that is finally brought to life by the god Apollo.

Even more impressive are a pair of gouache paintings depicting the triumphs of the Greek hero Perseus. The Death of the Medusa (1882) and the The Doom Fulfilled(1882) might strike you as rather baffling compositions at first, but the initial confusion helps to give these works an energy entirely keeping with the drama they depict.

This is a richly rewarding exhibition that covers all of Burne-Jones’ career, including his close association and artistic collaboration with William Morris, the medievalist and design genius behind the English Arts and Crafts Movement. In this setting, with its strong period feel, we can almost imagine encountering these great men as well as their artworks.

Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, until Aug 19 (listing).

Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum

Venue Information

Address: 2-6-2 Marunouchi
Address (日本語): 東京都千代田区丸の内2-6-2
Nearest Station: Tokyo.
Website: www.mimt.jp

Upcoming Events at this Venue

Chardin

18th-century French painter.

September 8-January 6, ¥1,500 (door).

www.mimt.jp/chardin