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Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau

1 Review 2

2 Japonism 6

3 Ukiyo-e 19

4 Contemporary Applications 37

Review The Arts & Crafts Movement

1 What major event happened in London in 1851?

2 What were the main Review principles of the The Arts & Crafts Movement The Arts & Crafts movement? 1 What major event happened in London in 1851?

2 What were the main Review principles of the The Arts & Crafts Movement The Arts & Crafts movement? 3 1 Why did graphic design become so important What major event during the Industrial happened in London Revolution? in 1851?

WORKBOOK Morris and other practitioners of the Arts & Crafts wanted to make well-designed goods available to everyone, yet their labor-intensive, handmade, environmentally-conscious practices drove their prices beyond acceptable levels for ordinary people. Was their approach wrong? What could they have done differently to bring their ideals into alignment?

1858 Japonism The influence of Japanese art, fashion, and aesthetics on Western culture, following the forced reopening of trade of Japan in 1858 (from the French Japonisme).

1858 Convention of Kanagawa Matthew Perry forces Japan to open trade agreements with the United States, ending a 250 year period of national seclusion.

1603–1867 Tokugawa Period 徳川時代 The final period of traditional Japan, a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate (military dictatorship) founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

• Also called the Edo period • Shogunate rule • Samurai enforcement • Feudal system • Forced national isolation • Few external influences • Minimal Western contact (Portugal, Dutch an exception) • Singular national style • Ends with the Meiji Restoration

1868–1912 Meiji Restoration 明治維新 Strengthened by Western support, Emporer Meiji restores imperial rule across Japan within fifteen years of signing the Kanagawa Convention, ending the Tokugawa Period.

• End of the samurai, and feudal society • New imperial government • Capital moved from Kyoto to Edo (modern day Tokyo) • Opened trade and communication with Western societies and cultures • Internal stability • Economic expansion, business growth, influence of Western Capitalism • Japan becomes industrialized

© Kevin Woodland, 2020 (left) Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last Tokugawa Shogunate, (right) Emperor Meiji wearing Western-influenced military uniform GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau / Japonism 14 / 45

1868–1912 Meiji Restoration 明治維新 Western influence flooded and mixed with Japanese traditionalism.

• Flourishing cultural arts • East & West cultural collision • Reciprocal influences, a mutual fascination between East & West • Extensive trade between Japan and Europe: artwork, materials, clothing, fashion, etc.

(top left) George Hendrik Breitner Girl in a White Kimono 1894

(top-center) William Merritt Chase A Kimono 1888

(bottom-left) Alfred Stevens The Japanese Parisian 1872

(bottom-center) William Merritt Chase Girl in a Japanese Costume 1890

(right) James McNeill Whistler The Princess from the Land of Porcelain 1865

© Kevin Woodland, 2020 (left) Édouard Manet, Portrait of Émile Zola, 1868; (top-right); Andō Hiroshige, Pine Trees by a Shoreline, 1853; (bottom-right) Vincent van Gogh, Olive Grove, 1889. GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau 19 / 45

1600–1800’S Ukiyo-e 浮世絵 Ukiyo-e means pictures of the floating world and defines an art movement of Japan’s Tokugawa period of the 17th through 19th centuries.

Uki yo e 浮世絵

Floating World Pictures Fleeting Transient

The Floating World

© Kevin Woodland, 2020 Depictions of common ukiyo-e themes: kabuki theater, stage performances, athletics, nature, wildlife, folk-tales, far-away places, geisha, youth, beauty, and sometimes even sex. GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau / Ukiyo-e 22 / 45

1800’S Ukiyo-e Landscape and interior environments were frequently presented as suggestive impressions rather than detailed depictions.

• Calligraphic linework • Abstraction • Simplification • Flat color • Invented scale • Silhouettes • Bold black shapes • Decorative patterns

© Kevin Woodland, 2020 The Second Month (Kisaragi), Annual Events for Young Murasaki (Wakamurasaki nenjû gyôji no uchi), Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), circa 1849–1850 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau / Ukiyo-e 23 / 45

1800’S Ukiyo-e Subjects often became emblematic symbols, reduced to graphic interpretations conveying their essence.

Asian art provided European and North American artists and designers with new approaches to space, color, drawing conventions, and subject matter that were radically unlike Western traditions.

MEGGS

1820’S Aizuri-e 藍摺り絵 • “Blue printed picture” • Japanese woodblock prints that are printed entirely or predominantly in blue • When a second color is used, it is usually red • Even if only a single type of blue ink was used, variations in lightness and darkness (value) could be achieved by superimposing multiple printings of parts of the design or by the application of a gradation of ink to the wooden printing block

1820’S Aizuri-e 藍摺り絵 • Prussian Blue, imported from Europe in the 1820’s (probably via the Dutch) • This pigment had a number of advantages over the indigo or dayflower petal dyes that were previously used to create blue • It was more vivid, had greater tonal range and was more resistant to fading • Influenced the genre of landscape painting

© Kevin Woodland, 2020 The Great Wave off Kanagawa from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai (1830), makes extensive use of Prussian blue. GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau / Ukiyo-e 31 / 45

1760–1849

Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 • One of the most prolific Ukiyo-e artists • Creative genius • Influenced generations Japanese and European illustrators, artists and graphic designers

1814 Hokusai Manga 北斎漫画 Subjects of the sketches include landscapes, flora and fauna, everyday life and the supernatural.

• “Manga” defined by Hokusai as “Brush gone wild” • First published in 1814 (age 55) • Block-printed in one, two, or three colors • How-to guide for beginners and students

Contemporary Applications

© Kevin Woodland, 2020 Katsushika Hokusai, Suruga Ejiri (Eijiri in Suruga Province), from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, 1831 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / Ukiyo-e and Art Nouveau / Contemporary Applications 42 / 45

WORKBOOK Working from his Brooklyn art studio, Japanese artist Takuji Hamanaka uses the same centuries-old techniques to make his contemporary woodblock prints that Hokusai and many others used to make their prints. Does his Japanese heritage give him a stronger line of access to the ukiyo-e process than a non-Japanese person? What about the fact that he’s working in Brooklyn, as opposed to a location with stronger ties to the heritage of ukiyo-e such as Kyoto, Tokyo (formerly called Edo), or another town in Japan? Is he devaluing the technique by using abstract imagery rather than traditional subjects and motifs?