japonisme

first time i heard the word, was when i saw this book in the gift shop of the berkeley art museum, 1981, while i was there delivering the very first issue of a magazine i was publishing at the time (yellow silk).

for some reason i can recognize but not explain, my first reaction was, "yeah, sure. people are always trying to see things that aren't there, just to sell a book.

by the time, a couple of years later, that i not only "got it," but felt more passionately about it than i could imagine, the book was nowhere to be found. even it's publisher who was also my publisher had no copies.

my first day in paris i went to l'orangerie (the basement of which is the closest thing to church i've ever been in) and there at the bookstore, i found this book. even a momentary glance would convince the most heedless sceptic; the more one reads, the more one sees:

fortunately the book has now been reprinted in paper and is available once again.