These Amazing Photos, On Display At The Freer/Sackler, Tell The Story Of A Dramatic Century In Japan
The period from around 1860-1960 was pivotal in Japan's history; it was a time of civil war, new technology and the influence of Western values, a major earthquake, and nuclear devastation. The effect of this volatile timeline can be seen gradually, but dramatically, in the photography and prints created during that era, in a pair of exhibitions at the Freer/Sackler galleries.
For Japan Modern: Photography from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection, Carol Huh, associate curator of contemporary Asian art at the Freer/Sackler, chose some 80 images from a collection of 400 photos acquired in late 2017. These selections are a concise and eye-opening crash course in the development of Japanese photography.
Katz and Huyck's love of photography comes from their shared cinematic sensibilities. The two co-wrote the screenplay for American Graffiti with George Lucas and directed the low-budget horror film Messiah of Evil. In Views of Japan, their book about their collection, they write about visiting director Akira Kurosawa on the set of his late-career film Kagemusha: "Passing through shabby industrial towns, we wondered how Kurosawa could shoot a 16th century samurai epic in what resembled a dreary day in Jersey City."
That tension between the traditional landscape and drab modernity fueled their eye as collectors. Assembled chronologically, the exhibit begins with soft-focus landscapes that reflect a perhaps deceptively smooth transition from conventional, traditional Japanese art.
But with the advent of vest-pocket cameras and the growth of camera clubs in turn-of-the-20th century Japan, the visual aesthetic developed into a raw documentary form that chronicled the horrors of Nagasaki. By the 1950s, street photographers such as Tomatsu Shomei observed the increasing influence of the West.
Huh notes that the Katz and Huyck collection features images of iconic Mount Fuji that are a far cry from the way it's traditionally presented. This symbol of Japan appears several times—and in very different iterations—across the two companion exhibitions in the galleries. The images serve as a good jumping off point for exploring traditional Japanese printmaking, the rise of photography, and the sometimes conflicted relationship between the two.
Two smaller galleries house the exhibition, Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography. While works in this collection may seem closer to the traditional pictorial works we are accustomed to from Japan, these artists were also responding to technology and photography. For example, Kawase Hasui's 1926 print "Shin-Ohashi" recalls Edward Steichen's 1904 image of New York's Flatiron Building.
Frank Feltens, the Japan Foundation assistant curator of Japanese art, remarks that the Washington area is a particularly apt location in which to explore the relationship between Japan and the West. It was from ports in Norfolk, Virginia, that Commodore Matthew Perry set sail, bound for Edo Bay in 1853 to persuade the Japanese government into opening their ports for international trade, "which played its part in instigating Japan's modernity," says Feltens.
Photography ultimately put an end to the nation's print industry. But as Feltens explains, Japanese print artists took one of two paths in their attempt to keep the medium alive. Much as Washington's souvenir vendors cater to the local tourist trade, some Japanese print makers leaned into a romanticized vision of their nation that was marketed for visitors from the West. On the other hand, artists embraced what Feltens calls an "artistic immediacy," working from design to inking to printing on boldly colored and increasingly abstract compositions that were a stark departure from traditional printmaking.
The conflict between tradition and modernity is one of the great themes of art in any medium. Through photography and print-making, these two exhibits scratch the surface of a fraught cultural divide—with beautiful and enduring results.
Japan Modern: Photography from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection and Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography are on view from September 29, 2018-January 21, 2019 at the Freer/Sackler.
For Japan Modern: Photography from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection, Carol Huh, associate curator of contemporary Asian art at the Freer/Sackler, chose some 80 images from a collection of 400 photos acquired in late 2017. These selections are a concise and eye-opening crash course in the development of Japanese photography.
Katz and Huyck's love of photography comes from their shared cinematic sensibilities. The two co-wrote the screenplay for American Graffiti with George Lucas and directed the low-budget horror film Messiah of Evil. In Views of Japan, their book about their collection, they write about visiting director Akira Kurosawa on the set of his late-career film Kagemusha: "Passing through shabby industrial towns, we wondered how Kurosawa could shoot a 16th century samurai epic in what resembled a dreary day in Jersey City."
That tension between the traditional landscape and drab modernity fueled their eye as collectors. Assembled chronologically, the exhibit begins with soft-focus landscapes that reflect a perhaps deceptively smooth transition from conventional, traditional Japanese art.
But with the advent of vest-pocket cameras and the growth of camera clubs in turn-of-the-20th century Japan, the visual aesthetic developed into a raw documentary form that chronicled the horrors of Nagasaki. By the 1950s, street photographers such as Tomatsu Shomei observed the increasing influence of the West.
Huh notes that the Katz and Huyck collection features images of iconic Mount Fuji that are a far cry from the way it's traditionally presented. This symbol of Japan appears several times—and in very different iterations—across the two companion exhibitions in the galleries. The images serve as a good jumping off point for exploring traditional Japanese printmaking, the rise of photography, and the sometimes conflicted relationship between the two.
Two smaller galleries house the exhibition, Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography. While works in this collection may seem closer to the traditional pictorial works we are accustomed to from Japan, these artists were also responding to technology and photography. For example, Kawase Hasui's 1926 print "Shin-Ohashi" recalls Edward Steichen's 1904 image of New York's Flatiron Building.
Frank Feltens, the Japan Foundation assistant curator of Japanese art, remarks that the Washington area is a particularly apt location in which to explore the relationship between Japan and the West. It was from ports in Norfolk, Virginia, that Commodore Matthew Perry set sail, bound for Edo Bay in 1853 to persuade the Japanese government into opening their ports for international trade, "which played its part in instigating Japan's modernity," says Feltens.
Photography ultimately put an end to the nation's print industry. But as Feltens explains, Japanese print artists took one of two paths in their attempt to keep the medium alive. Much as Washington's souvenir vendors cater to the local tourist trade, some Japanese print makers leaned into a romanticized vision of their nation that was marketed for visitors from the West. On the other hand, artists embraced what Feltens calls an "artistic immediacy," working from design to inking to printing on boldly colored and increasingly abstract compositions that were a stark departure from traditional printmaking.
The conflict between tradition and modernity is one of the great themes of art in any medium. Through photography and print-making, these two exhibits scratch the surface of a fraught cultural divide—with beautiful and enduring results.
Japan Modern: Photography from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection and Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography are on view from September 29, 2018-January 21, 2019 at the Freer/Sackler.
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