: The Honolulu Academy of Arts will present a landmark exhibition
of paintings by European and Japanese Modernists in "Japan &
Paris: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the Modern Era,"
April 8 through June 6 in the Henry R. Luce Gallery.
The academy will be the only venue anywhere in the world to show
this spectacular group of more than 50 Impressionist,
post-Impressionist, Cubist and other Modern masterpieces from 28
Japanese collections and one American collection. It will be the
first exhibition in the West to focus on this area of art
history. Many of these artworks have never been seen outside of
Japan. It is also the first time a major exhibition of
Impressionist art has been shown at the academy in the State of
Hawaii.
An automated information service about the exhibition is
available beginning March 15 at 808-532-8719. Please call this
number during the normal museum hours for exhibition information,
reservations and updates on special programming. Also beginning
April 8, advance ticket sales in person will be available during
the normal museum hours at the Academy Box Office, Tuesday
through Saturday, 10 am to 4:30 pm, and Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm.
Special admission to the exhibition is set at $15 general; $10
for children 6-17; children 5 and under are admitted free of
charge, however, no strollers or backpacks are permitted in the
exhibition because of space limitations. Tickets are issued for a
specific date and entry time and are nonrefundable and
nontransferable. The audio tour is offered in both Japanese and
English languages.
Public viewing hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday,
10 am to 5 pm; Thursday, 10 am to 9 pm (except April 8 when the
exhibition will close at 5 pm); and Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm.
Organized by the Honolulu Academy of Arts, "Japan & Paris:
Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the Modern Era" will
present masterpieces by such artists as Claude Monet,
Pierre-August Renoir, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Pablo Picasso,
Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne. In addition, Japanese artists
including Kume Keiichiro, Maeta Kanji, Mitsutani Kunishiro and
Yorozu Tesugoro, who were instrumental to the introduction of
Western modes of expression to Japan, will also be featured.
The exhibition is about how art and artists cross cultural
barriers and how French art impacted Japanese art in the late
Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. "Japan & Paris"
demonstrates the deep cross-cultural nature of art in Japan from
about 1880 to 1930. A core group of paintings in the exhibition
was among those acquired by the first Japanese collectors of
Western modernism.
Among the progressive Japanese art enthusiasts who collected
works at the beginning of the Twentieth Century was Hayashi
Tadamasa, a Japanese art dealer who went to Paris in 1878 to
develop a business exporting Japanese works of art to Western
collectors. He became one of the first Japanese to collect
Western art and return with it to Japan. Several paintings in the
exhibition were originally in the possession of other passionate
collectors such as Matsukata Kojiro, whose collection is the core
of what are now housed in Tokyo at the National Museum of Western
Art.
The exhibition has received loans from 28 Japanese museums and
private collections and one American collection. Highlights
include a sparkling depiction of St Tropez by Paul Signac from
the Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum; an elegant portrait by
Modigliani from the Ise Foundation; a luminous depiction of a
nude bather by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from the Kawamura Memorial
Museum of Art; a Barbizon-influenced depiction of women gathering
apples by Kume Keiichiro from the Kume Museum of Art, Tokyo; and
a richly characterized portrait of a woman from the demi-monde by
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec from the Ohara Museum of Art,
Kurashiki.
The exhibition catalog, priced at $27.50 plus shipping and
handling, has essays by leading American and Japanese scholars.
It may be ordered online at www.honoluluacademy.org or by phone
at 808-532-8703 or 800-829-5211.
The Academy will present three companion shows drawn from its own
collections, "European Modernism, 1860-1930: Prints from the
Academy's Collection" in the Graphic Arts Gallery from March
25-June 20; "Art & Life in Paris & the Countryside:
Impressionism/Post-Impressionism," April 8-July 31 in the
Education Wing Gallery; and "Influencing Paris: Japanese Prints
Collected by European Collections" on view March 25-June 27 in
the Asian Galleries.
"European Modernism" is curated by Jennifer Saville and will
present color lithographs, etchings and woodcuts by Pierre
Bonnard, Camille Corot, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet,
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
"Art & Life in Paris and the Countryside" will feature
interactive components and is especially designed for children
and school tours. The exhibition will investigate the lives and
time of the prominent artists, their influences on one another
and their distinctive styles of painting.
"Influencing Paris" is curated by the Academy's curator of Asian
art, Julia White. This exhibition will highlight some of the most
famous prints of ukiyo-e (floating world) images, which
dramatically influenced the greatest painters of the French
Impressionist movement, including Claude Monet. As a complement
to Japan & Paris, this show provides a different perspective
on the influence of Japanese art on Impressionism. The Academy's
own collection of over 9,000 ukiyo-e is considered one of the
finest in America.
For information, www.honoluluacademy.org or 808-532-8700.
