Exhibitions: Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880–1920

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  March 2008: Featuring more than twenty-five rarely seen works on paper from the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition explores the impact of Japanese art on the graphic arts of America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period, Americans were avidly discovering, studying, and collecting the arts of Japan. Artists were particularly fascinated by these exotic objects and found in them inspiration for revitalizing Western pictorial traditions. James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Robert Blum, Winslow Homer, Arthur Wesley Dow, and others began incorporating Japanese motifs, aesthetic principles, and techniques into their own art—a phenomenon known by the French term “Japonisme.”
  
  Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880–1920 examines myriad manifestations of Japonisme in a selection of fine etchings, lithographs, watercolors, pastels, and other graphic media created by American artists. James McNeill Whistler, for example, created compositions with dramatic contrasts of blank and filled areas and subtle atmospheric effects. His brand of aesthetics influenced many younger Americans, including Joseph Pennell and Robert Blum. Mary Cassatt was inspired by Japanese prints to create some of her most formally and technically daring color etchings characterized by flattened figures, unmodulated planes of color, and strong linear design. Some artists had an even more direct engagement with the art of Japan. Both Bertha Lum and Helen Hyde spent years living in Japan and studying traditional printing techniques. Their woodcuts were immensely popular during their lifetimes and helped to familiarize American audiences with Japanese styles and subjects.
  
  This exhibition also includes several examples of Japanese art in order to illustrate the characteristics that American artists found so appealing in this art. Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880-1920 complements the special exhibition Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 on view at the Brooklyn Museum from March 21 through June 15, 2008.
  
  Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880-1920 is organized by Karen Sherry, Assistant Curator of American Art.

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Press Coverage of this Exhibition

• Home & Garden CalendarApril 10, 2008 "Japanese Graphic Arts Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway at Washington Avenue; (718) 638-5000. A collection of etchings, lithographs, watercolors, pastels and other graphic works will be on display in the Luce Visible Storage Study Center at the museum, in ''Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880-1920.'' The exhibition, which will run from April..."
• Home & Garden CalendarApril 17, 2008 "Behind Garden Gates The Garden Conservancy; (888) 842-2442. The Open Garden Days program begins in Connecticut on April 20, in a rugged garden in Weston. This garden, which features more than 30 daffodil cultivars dating to the 1920s, and vegetable, rock and perennial gardens, will be open for guided tours at 10 a.m. and noon. Admission to this..."
• Home and Garden CalendarMay 1, 2008 "Images, New York City The New York Public Library Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue at 42d Street; (212) 930-0830. ''Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City,'' an exhibition of works by five contemporary New York-based photographers, will be at the library from May 2 through Aug. 29. The subject matter of the..."
• Home & Garden CalendarMay 8, 2008 "Art on Park Avenue Seventh Regiment Armory, 643 Park Avenue (66th Street); (212) 472-0590. The International Fine Art Fair will open with a preview to benefit the Frick Collection on May 8, from 6 to 9 p.m. Support levels vary: tickets for admission at 6 p.m., $1,500; at 6:30 p.m., $500; at 7 p.m., patron tickets, $250, and young collectors, for..."
• Home & Garden CalendarMay 15, 2008 "Women and Fashion Museum at F.I.T., Seventh Avenue at 27th Street; (212) 217-4558. ''Arbiters of Style: Women at the Forefront of Fashion,'' an exhibition that will explore the influence of female designers, fashion industry professionals and tastemakers on style and design over the last 250 years, will open on May 21 and continue through Nov. 8...."