English
Until January 15, 2012 the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam exhibit East-west: Japan and Japan-ism that ventures into the influence that Japanese artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had in European painting and the art market of that time . The show will consist of 40 works, among which are some belonging to Vincent Van Gogh and other artists of the era who were influenced by these works of art.
The arrival of Japanese paintings marked a turning point in European art due to the lovely images introduced in the imaginations of the artists of the time, besides the new use of certain of paintings ideas and engravings, such as the use of colors and pattern compositions that impacted many artists in Europe.
Among the works on display are those made by Japanese artists Hiroshige and Utagawa Kunisada Utagawa and paintings by artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Rivière, Felix Buhot and Vincent Van Gogh.
The Utagawa School of painting was developed in Japan and was very popular until the mid-nineteenth century. This movement is described as the forerunner of the genre of Ukiyo-e imprinting . The founder was Toyokuni Utagawa or Toyoharu III, who was born in 1735 whose first artistic knowledge was acquired in the Kano School. However, in the course of his work he started to develop his own technique and color management, ultimately creating the school that made him famous beyond Japan and times.
The earliest known works of Utagawa fall in the style of Suzuki Harunobu, with the application of certain technical features of the Utagawa school that give a graceful special sense of movement to air. The particularity of Toyoharu was the introduction of the ukiyo-e landscape , which means painting the world that flows.
Utagawa Hiroshige was born in Edo, now Tokyo, Japan in 1797. He began as an apprentice in the Utagawa School still almost as a child, reason that led him to become the closest pupil of Utagawa Toyoharu to the point that after his death he was in charge of his shop. The influence of his teacher marked the first stage of his painting, however, in mid-1800 he began to paint landscapes and nature, his most famous series is 53 Tokyo Station, which is a series of paintings on Tokyo. The importance of his work is due because it opens up a market of Japanese art in Europe, and his style became known as the Japanese who decisively influenced the development of expressionism and modernism.
Utagawa Kunisada was a pupil of Utagawa Toyoharu. Born in 1786 his birth name was Shögorö Sumida, which he changed to honor his teacher. He specialized in painting portraits of ladies courtesans and actors. His work is distinguished by a couple shades with few contrasts.
For more information
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=246474&lang=en
December is a great time to browse and to lease apartments in Amsterdam and travel through the romantic canals, crossing bridges with a bike and enjoy one of the most liberal cities in the world.
Translated by: Marc
