February Notes - 2025
Van Gogh Self Portraits and Hokusai Manga Drawings
Steal Like an Artist, the Japanese edition
“When I am one hundred and ten, each dot, each line will possess a life of its own.” Hokusai
It is no secret that I am obsessed with Artist DNA. I am constantly looking for the influence and connection between artists. How did they obtain the influence? What are the throughlines? How were the influences used, and how were they transformed? Is it the influence of a particular artist or a full-scale cross-pollination of a culture?
Every art movement, from Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Symbolism, Surrealism, and Mid-Century Modernism, would not have evolved as it did without the fairly sudden and thorough inundation of Japonism in the second half of the 19th Century.
When I look at these movements through the lens of Japonism, numerous insights become clear. I will provide you with examples of Western art and their origins in Japonism. Let me know if they make you think about the work differently, if you get a moment of “ah-ha, now I get it,” or if suddenly a whole explanation about the Western work forms in your head once you see its origin.
HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: Kawanabe Kyōsai
Kawanabe Kyōsai, Fart Battle (detail), January 1881.
Handscroll: ink and light colour on paper. 20 × 683 cm. Israel Goldman Collection, London. Photo: Ken Adlard.
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Before leaving Kyoto I visited as many museums as I could. I was already quite disoriented, not being able to read the signs or speak the language. But along the way I stumbled into a museum that had a massive exhibition of some enormous scrolls by Kawanabe Kyōsai. The gallery was quite dark with only the scrolls illuminated. At first I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. As I moved along the scroll which may have been longer than 20 feet, I suddenly realized that I was watching a fierce battle being conducted with farts! These sardonic “battles” were painted in resistance to the invasion of Western forces in Japan. Let the battle begin.
For more about these scrolls check out this blog: https://earthlymission.com/classic-japanese-fart-art/
FROM THE LIBRARY : SIEGFRIED WICHMANN - JAPONISME
This book opened my eyes to just how thoroughly Japanese art transformed Western art. This book has changed my understanding of painting from 1870 onward.
“The impact of Japan on Western art was as immediate and almost as cataclysmic as the influence of the West on Japanese life. After Commodore Perry opened Japan's door to the outside world in1858ending a 200-year period of total isolationa wealth of visual information from the superb Japanese traditions of ceramics, metalwork, architecture, printmaking, and painting reached the West and brought with it electrifying new ideas of composition, color, and design.
One has only to see a celebrated painting by Monet, Degas, Whistler, or van Gogh, a print by Toulouse-Lautrec, an Art Nouveau glass vase, or a lacquered hair comb side by side with its Japanese source to see how these ideas have inspired European artists. Nor is the influence a superficial one: Japanese conventions of symbolism underlie the use of decorative motifs in European Symbolism and Art Nouveau, and the Zen idea of spontaneity is the ultimate source of both the apparently capricious shapes of Art Nouveau objects and the development of an abstract "calligraphy" in Abstract Expressionism.
Siegfried Wichmann, the acknowledged expert on Japonisme, accompanies the breathtaking illustrations with a text that organizes a wealth of detail and opens up new lines of inquiry. 1,105 illustrations, 243 in color.”
AT THE MOVIES: KURARA: THE DAZZLING LIFE OF HOKUSAI’S DAUGHTER
“This is the story of the daughter of Japanese painter Hokusai, who assisted her famed father in his old age and developed her own painting style based on her love of 'kurara' dazzling colours.”
Of course, what I love about this film is the depiction of her painting on silk. To say nothing of the fact that both she and her father did most of their painting while sitting on the floor, drinking sake and smoking opium. You can’t imagine the toll painting takes on your body.
ART SPOTLIGHT: RED AND WHITE KOI FISH
Red and White Koi, 20 inches x 24 inches, oil on canvas, © 2012 Leslie Parke
Between 2006 and 2012 I painted a series of Koi fish paintings. Some of which you can see HERE. These paintings were definitely influences by Japonism as seen through several filters. I was enamoured of the Koi paintings by Joseph Raffael. Twice I used the same format as Boldini’s still life painting that I wrote about HERE, a painting that was also influenced by Japanese scroll painting.
BLOG POSTS RELATED TO JAPONISM
A significant and often overlooked influence on Van Gogh was the vibrant world of Japanese art, specifically ukiyo-e woodblock prints. These prints, depicting everything from serene landscapes to dramatic kabuki actors, captivated Van Gogh and fundamentally altered his artistic trajectory.