|
|
Estampes japonaises et Antiquités du Japon
Japanese fine Prints and Works of Art gallery, in Paris
|
|
|
|
"
Shin-Hanga " The
japanese print in 20-th century After
the "modernization", Japan enters with the Era Taisho which
succeeds in 1912 the Era Meiji, in better years . This period is notably
characterized with a strong economic and cultural development, with a break in
1923, due to the big earthquake of Kantô (area of Tokyo). With the Era Shôwa,
from 1926 , the society met more difficulties, what is not without report with
the emergence of strongly nationalist political forces and the policy of
territorial expansion of 1930's. In
the artistic domain, 20-th century confirms break with the traditional print
" ukiyo-e ", perceptible from the beginning of the Era Meiji.
Nevertheless, xylography did not disappear. As
often in Japan, a too much stressed craze - in favour of what came from
Occident-produced in a sense its opposite, and from the beginning of 20-th
century, a reversal took place for the benefit of a return to traditional
values, notably in the art.
So
well, with the Era Taisho ( 1912-1926 ), certain draftsmen decided to dedicate
themselves to the xylography, but according to a mode different from that of
their predecessors.
Two
styles of wood engraving, sometimes rival, often additional were born, "
Shin-Hanga " ( new carving), and " Sosaku-Hanga " ( creative
carving), which knew a strong expansion during the Era Showa ( 1926-1988 ). In
" Sosaku-Hanga ", the same artist take the entire process of
creation, the drawing , the printing, by way of the carving of the wood, what
requires qualities. Generally,he publishes the production himself,
as Yamamoto Kanae ( 1882-1946 ) or Onchi Koshiro ( 1891-1955 ). It is also
about pictorial and graphic searches for young draftsmen, knowing Occidental but
worried art to follow their appropriate way, except gravities inherent to a
production technically complex. In
the field of the print " Shin-Hanga " eras Taisho and Showa saw
converging on searches and on aspiration of a draftsmen's new generation, and
the determining action of a publisher outside the common, installed in
Tokyo in 1910, Watanabe Shozaburo ( 1885-1962 ), who revolutionized the world of
the Japanese print in the 1920's. Here, the division of the successive acts of
creation is similar to that of " Ukiyo-e ", the group making under the
responsibility of the publisher.
The
print of 20-th century is, by nature , an object of art. A
sight of Tokyo by Ishii Hakutei ( Sosaku-Hanga), or a landscape of Ito Shinsui
or Kawase Hasui ( Shin-Hanga) have not for vocation - contrary to those drawn in
the years 1830-1840 by Katsuchika Hokusai or Utagawa Hiroshige-discover to to
their country to the Japanese. Such prints want to show and to feel the main
thing of an atmosphere in a place which can be famous or seemingly commonplace. Actor's
portrait by Yamamura Toyonari or Natori Shunsen ( Shin-Hanga) does not suggest
revealing the face of such first-rate actor of kabuki: the photography and the
magazines take care of it. It has for comment to give to discover, and at
first through the glance, the profound sentiment of the artist in his role, the
psychology of a person, mastery finished by a commitment in the service of the
theater. Work
" Shin-Hanga " or " Sosaku - Hanga " addresses deliberately
a warned public: aesthetes, collectors, patrons, amateurs' clubs. She{*it*} is
by this aspect, comparable to the publishing of the " surimonos " of
18-th and 19-th centuries, reserved for a selected and little numerous clientele.
From
then on, production becomes more limited. At
first by the number of the editions of the same print, between one hundred and
two hundred copies mostly, but sometimes less. In certain cases, notably at
Watanabe Shozaburo, publishing of an additional series for the export. Edition
is sometimes justified, on the Occidental mode born in 19-th century, either by
the apposition of a stamp or a label in back of print in certain series - but it
is far from being systematic, or by the presence of a number registered on the
pencil in the low margin of the print. This remains however rare, this numbering
being rather in productions " Sosaku-Hanga " or of draftsmen having
stayed or lived in West. The knowledge of the character limited by a publishing
results rather from the advertisement made by the publishers at the time
of the launch on the market of the series of prints, as well as archives of
publishing houses. Production
limited, then , because of the number of prints drawn by the artists. If Utagawa
Hiroshige had given more than 5 000 prints during his career, and Utagawa
Kunisada, Toyokuni III, doubtless more still, Ito Shisui has creates 147 prints,
Hiroshi Yoshida, 259, Natori Shunsen, less than 100, and Kawase Hasui about 700.
Hashiyuki Goyo ( 1880-1921 ) gave only 14 prints published between 1915
and 1921; 10 others engraved in 1920 were published after the disappearance. Furthermore,
certain painters dedicated themselves to the print in a second or occasional way,
their essential activity - and more lucrative concentrating on the painting or
on the illustration of books and magazines. Such is the case of
Ishii Hakutei, participating in two movements, Shin-Hanga and Sosaku-Hanga,
before turning definitively, and successfully, to the painting. Yamamura
Toyonari gave only around thirty boards between 1916 and 1926, the majority
being published by Watanabe Shozaburo, preferring painting and lithography which
he signed of the pen name " Koka ". To
note that, contrary to the production of 18-th and 19-th century, that of 20-th
century is known and identified perfectly, at least for the most important
signatures. Reasoned catalogs or exhibitions in Japanese museums exist
generally and give any precision on works and their editions. On
the whole, it is so about rare details in number, at least for original
editions, because after 1950's, republications notably of Hiroshi Yoshida and
Kawase Hasui were, and are offered to the public. The characteristics of these
last ones allow nevertheless an eye exercised to make difference. Another
characteristic of these prints of 20-th century likes their often irreproachable
technical quality, that it is about the sharpness and about the exactness of the
carving, the printing with the best papers and the ink, the presence of
reliefs, of bokashis (degraded with colour), sometimes of mica-bearing parts
etc. … Logical
consequence holds in the price, appreciably more raised from the very
beginning, of these rare and beautiful prints. The
importance of the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo must be underlined in the
development of " Shin-Hanga ", because he really finalized an
economy of the market of the print at the beginning of 20-th century. Watanabe
Shozaburo's dominant role was strengthened with the big earthquake of Kanto in
1923. Fire almost destroyed all the workshops of prints of Tokyo. Only some
publishers, whose Watanabe, found the means to be reborn. The secondary
workshops, or of copyists, disappeared, cleaning up by there even, the domestic
market and in the export. For
landscapes, with a preference for strong subjects - such at night, the snow, the
mist, and by privileging light the signatures of Ito Shinsui ( 1898-1950 ),
Kawase Hasui ( 1883-1957 ) and Hiroshi Yoshida ( 1876-1950 ) prevail. The first,
considered as one of the most important draftsmen of Japan, was made "
alive national Treasury " in 1952. Also for Kawase Hasui, " alive
national Treasury " in 1956. Naturally, the other artists gave works
landscape painters of big quality at the same time, and notably Tsuchiya Koitsu
( 1870-1949 ), Kasamatsu Shirô (been born in 1898), and the others else. Involving
women's representation, some names appear as those of Hashiguchi Goyo (
1880-1921 ), Torii Kotondo ( 1900-1976 ), Ito Shinsui again, but also Hiroshi
Yoshida, Takahashi Hiroaki ( 1871-1945 ), Ishikawa Toraji or Kobayakawa Kiyoshi. Finally
actors' representation of kabuki limited essentially to Natori Shunsen's (
1886-1960 ) , of Yamamura Toyonari ( 1885-1942 ), and Yoshikawa Kampô (
1894-1979 ), who perfectly showed the most famous comedians of time, in a
partially renewed repertoire.
|
|
Pour tout renseignement / For any information
|
