inevitable

inevitable. looking back across the 20th century, it seems that every movement in art history peels smoothly off the one before, uncurling itself as though new. but it's not; it's an inevitable step on the road, given that, expect this.

modern abstract art is inevitable, given the stripped-down shape-for-shape-sake of the bauhaus years. art had been making the dive into abstraction for decades, to the point where meaning and reference become moot: sheer existence. ("just dance! don't think!"1)

art deco into bauhaus is obviously inevitable: abstraction of shape into outline lent itself to form over fantasy. clearing out, clearing away to make way for the modern age in which everyone was too busy to think a wasted thought, or waste a single movement. the line was important then, which was inevitable.

and yes, i am simplifying, but i wouldn't want to fall behind the times! also bold were the times leading into the art deco moment. art nouveau was about that line, that curve, that color, that biological reference...

and art nouveau... that was not inevitable. yes, one could say it was preceded by impressionism, well, it was preceded by impressionism, but impressionism was more about an entire field whereas art nouveau and all of its inevitable followers were about one thing: the line.

to my eyes nothing whatsoever in anything that preceded the arrival of the east predicted what was to follow. the beginning of the line which was not to end. nothing in the tiny and drab patterns of western textiles hinted of the explosion that was to come. (nor predicted was the inspiration by a zionist art nouveau designer from galicia of a british-turned-american designer named louis rhead!)

it wasn't always a linear progression; some of the textiles of the deco stylists more resembled the japanese textiles than did their earlier counterparts. but was this exuberant jump to boldness predictable? i think not!

was the festoonization of clothing with flora and fauna an expected result of incoming culture? why should it be? not a chance! or was it to be expected that practically overnight color broke the color barrier? i pale just thinking of it.

that upper-crust drawing rooms might be thrilled to adorn their walls with spiders might have raised some eyebrows, but other than little miss muffet, everyone would have it no other way. for it was nature and color bursting from their wraps in the holds of the black ships arriving from japan.

and while japan likely viewed their latest fashions as being inevitable, given the season before, not a soul, i would bet, would have ever guessed that in the west they would inspire a series of inevitable progressions for decades and decades to come.

(check out MODA's new blog.)

tis a gift

When the Japanese ports were opened to Europe in the nineteenth century, the Ukiyo-e prints gave the western world "a glimpse of Japanese life" and became, with their “simplicity of line and large flat areas of colour, a major influence on the more innovative European painters.” 1

The influence of Japanese art on western painters is known as ‘Japonisme’. This is not to be confused with ‘Japonaiserie’ which is the western interest in the exotic, decorative, or fantastic qualities of Japanese art for their novelty value. 2

Japonisme is not a style. According to Wichmann, “it does not lend itself to being used as a concept in place of a style; and it cannot be pinned down to a specific period.” It is rather, the influence of the (then) new ways of seeing the world that the Ukiyo-e prints, and then the Japanese paintings provided.

It caused a “decisive re-evaluation” in the ways western painters had been looking at the world. 3

The influence of Japanese art was not restricted to just ‘simplicity of line and large flat areas of colour’ but was also manifest in the other artistic ‘devices’ that provided unfamiliar solutions to ways of seeing and representing space and forms and how they relate to the apparent world.

(As Chisaburo cautions: “it is often very difficult to determine in what respect and how far Japanese influence extended”, and…“it is sometimes difficult to be persuaded of a Japanese source when an equally good and more accessible European one is at hand.”

However, as Henry Moore says, “I suppose everything which one appreciates must have some influence even though one isn’t (always) aware of it.” 2

Shore W. Ukiyo-e, Castle, New Jersey, 1980. 1
Chisaburo, Y. Japonisme in Art - An International Symposium,
Committee for the Year 2000, Tokyo, 1980. 2
Wichmann S. Japonisme, Harmony Books, New York, 1981. 3

from Virginia Hodgkinson's master's thesis (pdfs).

here's my process as a hunter gatherer, spending all day searching for images, then squirreling them away into intimately labeled folders. these were in the 'simplies' folder. the west entered the wonderful stage of extraordinarily simple images as part of their enchantment with the un-victorian, un-rococo, un-ungepatched japanese work. when i saw the blue bicycle, i knew it was time for the simplies folder.