10/6/2023 0 Comments Franz kline black subjectivityOf course, it is impossible to talk about the influence of Japanese art on Western artists without mentioning the work of Vincent Van Gogh. Yet the perspective of the viewer being positioned slightly above the subject is a distinctly Japanese trait, his appropriation of which can be attributed to his extensive knowledge of the work of Japanese artists. Both pieces feature nude women performing domestic activities, in keeping with Degas’ already-established style. Similarly, Edgar Degas’, Woman Combing Her Hair is said to be directly inspired by Utagawa Hiroshige’s, Yamauba Combing Her Hair and Kintoki. The print is reminiscent of Kitagawa Utamaro’s Takashima Ohisa Using Two Mirrors to Observe Her Coiffure, despite the latter being created a hundred years previously, thus emphasising the timelessness of the genre. This is particularly evident in her print The Coiffure, which depicts a woman in the everyday activity of brushing her hair. Cassatt reinvented her signature subject matter of women and children in the style of Japanese prints, using flat colours and only indicating dimensionality through the use of line rather than tone. Meanwhile, many artists made more subtle references to ukiyo-e prints, for example Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, notably in style rather than subject matter. The Coiffure, Mary Cassatt, 1890-91 and Takashima Ohisa Using Two Mirrors to Observe Her Coiffure, Kitagawa Utamaro, ca. Notably, the subject matter of Monet’s Japanese Bridge paintings can be directly compared to the landscapes of the ukiyo-e prints, especially Hokusai’s, Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa, thus introducing a distinctly Japanese feel to the traditionally French movement of Impressionism. However, some took inspiration more literally than others. Impressionist artists such as Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and James Tissot all accumulated large collections of Japanese art. If not at the time, certainly in retrospect we recognise this practice as appropriation of the culture rather than a celebration of it, which we do not wish to glamorise. Indeed it is important to note that, some of the work produced by these artists is deemed Orientalism rather than simple inspiration, as they would dress in traditional clothing and imitate Japanese people. Some of the most famous ukiyo-e artists were Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Hiroshige, whose flattened perspectives, bright colours and defined outlines provided no end of inspiration to Western artists. The prints depicted Kabuki theatre actors, landscapes, erotic scenes and many other aspects of Japanese culture. One such introduction was that of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, literally meaning ‘pictures of the floating world’, referring to the pleasure districts of Edo (now Tokyo). Japonisme was first used as a term by French collector and art critic Philippe Burty in 1872, as the influence of Japan on Western artists became more widespread. The phenomenon came to be known as Japonisme as there was a sudden rise in interest in Japanese art after Japan re-commenced trade with the West in 1853, thus introducing their goods and culture to Europe. The influence of Japanese art on Western artists established itself at the end of the 19th century during the Impressionist movement. Perhaps a political tool as well as an aesthetic one, Study for Shaft exemplifies abstract expressionism-a genre of art that, in 1954, Kline helped to define.The Water Lily Pond, Claude Monet, 1899 and Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa, Katsushika Hokusai, ca. But ultimately, as a work of its time, Study for Shaft conveys freedom: its abstract form and dynamic composition sing “liberty and justice for all” just as the Cold War was brewing halfway across the globe. And, like the black and white paintings of Kazimir Malevich and, later, Ad Reinhardt, Study for Shaft explores the interaction between black and white. Like the meditative tradition of Japanese calligraphers, Kline paid much heed to the placement and force of his hand for an effect that appears at once improvisational yet deliberate. In Harold Rosenberg’s text American Abstract Painters, the critic famously wrote, “What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.” This work, with its active and liberated form, epitomizes this fiercely American aesthetic that a generation of artists, including Kline, embraced to define their age. Kline’s fierce ebony strokes punching through the picture plane illustrate the purist form of Abstract Expressionism. Confident and arresting, these midnight black strokes are the result of the artist’s dynamic painterly style as he guides his loaded brush across his chosen support. In Franz Kline’s Study for Shaft, bold and gestural brushstrokes race across the subdued white field before quietly settling into a composition that exudes both power and grace.
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