Japan Fever
Look at the paintings of the Impressionists or early-modern Western masters and you’ll see the styles of Japan on many a canvas.
Looking East, a traveling show about to open in town, examines that significant trend. Focusing on the rage for all things Japanese — fans, kimonos, lanterns, umbrellas — that erupted in Europe and North America after the island opened its ports in the 1850s, the exhibit contains more than 170 paintings, drawings, prints, textiles, and decorative objects. It juxtaposes works from both cultures to illustrate how Japanese art’s decorative patterns and brightly colored flat forms excited and influenced the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Featured Western artists include Vincent van Gogh, who incorporated Japanese woodblock-print patterns into the backgrounds of his paintings, and Claude Monet, who modeled aspects of his garden, including the bridge over his famed water-lily pond, after Japanese designs. A woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige illustrates the connection.
— Anita Katz
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