Deco east
Seems
art deco is the flavour of the month at the moment. With the National
Gallery of Victoria's blockbuster exhibition under way, the Art
Gallery of NSW is also taking in some art deco influence; albeit
from an unusual source.
Japan in the early part of the 20th century was
a place of great change and challenge, nowhere more evident than
in the arts of the Taisho and early Showa eras from 1912 to 1930s.
Western-oriented ideologues championed the avant-garde tastes
from Europe and America. In turn, nativists sought an antidote
to Western materialism in the values of the Japanese past. The
crucial question of the day was: how could one be both Japanese
and modern at the same time when modernity was defined as Western?
Featuring about 70 paintings, prints, textile and
decorative arts the exhibition, Taisho Chic – Japanese
Modernity, Nostalgia and Deco encapsulates the clash
and embrace of Western modernity and traditional Japan in this
transitional period. The exhibition highlights the changing role
of women during the Taisho period which splits between the image
of the modern girl modan gaaru or moga and the traditional girl
bijinga.
Kobayakawa Kiyoshi’s Tipsy (1930)
embodies the modan gaaru: dressed in a sleeveless polka-dot dress
and sporting a short hairdo, she smokes a cigarette seductively.
Her appearance reflects the influence of Western fashion which
was seen to be trendy. Fashionable women were known to alternate
between wearing the latest Western styles and the traditional
kimono.
Kobayakawa Kiyoshi:
Tipsy (1930). Honolulu Academy of Arts. Gift of Philip H Roach
Jr 2001
Yamakawa Shuho's Three Sisters (1936) portrays
powerful juxtapositions of modernity and Japanese femininity.
Three upper class women wear traditional kimonos, while posing
with a Packard and a portable camera, symbolising their wealth,
leisure and most importantly a familiarity with a foreign way
of life.
Art Deco and Impressionism were a great inspiration
for the Taisho artists who fused the elements of modernity and
nostalgia to create a distinctive aesthetic. Reminiscent of Manet’s
Olympia (1865) is Nakamura Daizaburo’s Woman
(1930) portraying the film star, Irie Takako. A woman who oozes
sophistication, she wears a bright red kimono and reclines on
a 19th century European-style chaise longue.
The exhibition also contains decorative items that
reflect the inclination towards the international Art Deco motif.
The set of six cups and saucers on display are originally from
the exclusive Mitsukoshi Department Store where Japanese women
purchased the latest fashions and decorative arts. Made from glass
with ruby-glass overlay and stainless steel, they are sleek and
the epitome of art deco design.
The kimonos included in the show are stunning with
their vivid colours, unusual techniques and bold, at times very
abstract patterns that are modern interpretations of traditional
motifs.
Curated by Kendall Brown, Professor of Japanese
Art History at California State University Long Beach for the
Honolulu Academy of Arts, the exhibition draws primarily from
the Academy’s own collection. All of the decorative arts
in the show are gifts from Patricia Salmon who was also the major
source for the most of the paintings.
The exhibition has successfully toured in the US
and Japan. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is the only venue
in Australia.
