Between Japan and France

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How the World Stole the Idea of Modern Art
Elaine OBrien, California State University,
Sacramento
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1985
2012
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Catalog cover for the 1984 exhibition,
Primitivism in 20th Century Modern Art Affinity
of the Tribal and the Modern, showing a Kwakiutl
mask (Unknown artist, ca. 1880) and Pablo
Picassos modernist Girl before a Mirror
(detail), 1932

• African, Oceanic, and global indigenist art was a
  primary source for modern arts radical new
  visual language.

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Paul Gauguin appropriated Japanese perspective,
composition, and figurative invention. His
signature use of outline was essentially
authorized by Japanese art.
Paul Gauguin, Vision After the Sermon Jacob
Wrestling with the Angel, oil on canvas, 1888
Hokusai, Sumo Wrestlers from the Hokusai Manga
vol. III, 1815, color Woodblock, 7 x 4.5
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(left) Ando Hiroshige, Kameido Ume (Japanese
apricot) Garden, woodcut, ink on paper, 1857,
from the series, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
(right) Vincent Van Gogh, Plum Tree in Bloom
(after Hiroshige), oil on canvas,1887
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Transformative influence of African tribal
sculpture Picassos epiphany in June 1907 at the
ethnographic museum in ParisBraque It is as
if someone had drunk kerosene to spit fire."

• My first exorcism painting.
• For me the masks were not just sculptures. They
  were magical objects...intercessors...against
  everything - against unknown threatening
  spirits....They were weapons . . . to keep people
  from being ruled by spirits. To help them free
  themselves. . . . If we give a form to these
  spirits we become free."

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Tokyo
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(left, above) Unknown, Portrait of Perry, a North
American, woodblock print, ca. 1854(right)
Mathew Brady, Commodore Matthew Perry,
daguerreotype, c. 1856 (below) Gountei Sadahide,
Complete Picture of The Newly Opened Port of
Yokohama, woodblock, 1863, c. 27 x 75 (69 x 190
cm)
In 1854 Commodore Perry of the US Navy forced
Japan open to trade with the United States
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Yoshikazu, Picture of Foreigners Enjoying a
Banquet, December 1860, Yokohama, color woodblock

• Children dance at the May Festival Ball given in
  honor of the Japanese ambassadors
• Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, June 6,
  1860

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The Emperor Meiji, 1873, albumen silver
printDuring the Meiji era (1868-1912) Japan
modernized rapidly and rose to world power
status equivalent to Western nations.
Western military dress and photography signify
modernity.
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For the best artistic minds, Paris alone has the
right feel, the proper atmosphere.
Iwamura Toru The Art Students of
Paris, 1902

• Academic studies by Japanese artists sent to
  study in Paris (left) Kuroda Seiki,1889 (right)
  Kume Keiichiro, 1887. The nude was the foundation
  subject for academic students of Western art from
  all over the world.

Academic study by Henri Matisse, 1892
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(left) Asai Chu (Japanese, 1856-1907), Fields in
Spring , oil on canvas, 1888(right) Camille
Pissarro (Caribbean-born French, ca.1830-1903)
Gleaners, oil on canvas,1889
Tokyo-Paris Parallel Modernisms
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(left) Yorozu Tetsugoro, Self Portrait with Red
Eyes, oil on canvas, 1912 Expressionist /
Cubist / Futurist (right) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
(German Expressionist, 1880-1938), Self Portrait
with Model, oil on canvas, 1910
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São Paulo
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Cover of exhibition catalogue for the Week of
Modern Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1922, held during
the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary
of independence from Portugal.
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(left) Tarsila do Amaral (Brazilian painter,
1886-1973), Self-Portrait, oil on paper, 15 in.
H, 1924(right) Tarsila do Amaral, 1922, Portrait
of Oswald de Andrade (Brazilian poet and
Tarsilas partner, 1890-1954), author of the
Pau-Brazil manifesto (1924) and the
Anthropophagite manifesto (1928) assertions of
Brazilianness against Eurocentric modernism
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(left) Tarsila do Amaral, Central Railway of
Brazil, 1924, oil, 56 in. H, Sâo Paulo, A Pau
Brazil landscape(right) Fernand Léger (French
Cubist, 1881-1955) The City, 1919
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(left) Tarsila do Amaral, An Angler, c.
1925(right) Carnival in Madureira, 1924, oil on
canvas, 30 in. HPost-Cubist Pau-Brazil
paintings inspired by 1924 travels in rural
Brazil with Oswald de Andrade and French poet,
Blaise Cendrars
Palette signifies Brazil versus Europe
colors I had adored as a child. I was later
taught they were ugly and unsophisticated.
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Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporu (Man who eats in
Tupi-Guarani), 1928, oil, 33½(84 cm) high.
Inspired Andrades Anthropophagite Manifesto in
which cannibalism becomes the metaphor for
Brazils transformation of European culture.
Only anthropophagy unites us. Socially.
Economically. Philosophically. The world's only
law. The masked expression of all individualisms,
of all collectivisms. Of all religions. Of all
peace treaties. Oswald de Andrade,
1928 Anthropophagite Manifesto
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Lagos
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(left) Aina Onabolu (Nigerian, 1882-1963),
Portrait of a Lawyer, oil, c. 1910(right)
Egungun Mask, Yoruba people, Nigeria, late
19th/early 20th century Picasso, Les Demoiselles
dAvignon, 1907, icon of avant-garde painting
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Shrine head, Yoruba. Ife, Nigeria. 12th-14th c.,
terracotta, 12 x 7 in. (31.1 x 18.4 cm).
Minneapolis MA
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(left) Aina Onabolu, Portrait of a Man (Self
Portrait?), oil on canvas, 1954(right) Onabolu,
Nude Study, drawing, 1920(?)
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(left) Uche Okeke, Ana Mmuo (Land of the
Spirits), 1961, oil on board, 36 x 48, National
Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
(right) Some members of the Zaria Art Society,
Nigeria, 1960. Left to right Bruce Onobrakpeya,
S.O.Okeke, Uche Okeke (cut off) 2nd row
Odechukwu Odita, Demas Nwoko and Oseloka Osabede
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Art, like language, lives by appropriation
and assimilation. Why then should this
self-evidence be made a western monopoly, while
we, the Others, when we take up, learn and
appropriate are stamped as imitators and
parrots? Everlyn Nicodemus
The Centre of Otherness