Art Articles & Reviews

} Meiji By Robert Amos I dropped in to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria once more to bask in the starlight of Pat Martin Bates’s lightbox skyscapes (until July 10). That’s just one of the half dozen fascinating exhibitions there. I also found myself engrossed by an extensive show of the best student work of Victoria area high school students (until May 29). I spent about ten minutes looking into a cabinet of English Delftware in the old mansion. And then I discovered The Art of Meiji Japan (until August 14). For about 250 years - from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria - Japan was virtually closed to the outside world. Then, in 1853, Commodore Perry of the United States sailed into Tokyo Bay with four awe-inspiring “black ships” and forced Japan to sign the first of many trade treaties with western nations. The Japanese military dictator, the Tokugawa Shogun, had a rule of 250 years brought to an end; the new monarch, the Emperor Meiji, reigned from 1868 to 1912. Those 45 years of the Meiji reign “marked an astonishing metamorphosis from primitive feudal state to modern industrial and military power,” Barry Till has written in the catalogue. According to him, it truly was “one of the most extraordinary periods in the history of the modern world.” With this Meiji show, the gallery is ablaze with strident colours, impacted imagery and amazing and amusing iconography. Dominating the walls are dozens of woodcut prints from the gallery’s collection, many of them panoramic triptychs. The woodcut was a popular art form by which the people of Japan learned about the novelties which were flooding in to change their lives. Thousands of such images were created, sold for a penny a piece or included in the new medium of newspapers. The old woodcut technology was soon to be replaced by photography, but not yet. Even during this Meiji era, the traditional soft colours of vegetable dyes were being superceded by the harsh colours of imported aniline dyes - firecracker red, deep purple and mineral greens. For the first time, the Imperial family was exposed to the public gaze: no longer remote royal personnages, they were now frequently depicted as part of this nation-building popular art. To assure its place in the modern world, Japan decided to build military might. They took on China and then Japan in warfare. A necessary flood of patriotic spirit in Japan was pumped up by these prints which brought news of victories - always victories - to the people back at home. The “special effects” of rockets and gunfire and sinking ships look like the precursor of Marvel Comics and kung-fu movies. An endearing naivete draws us into a realm of Japanese art, from which the expected esthetic of quiet restraint has been utterly overwhelmed by an eagerness to join the modern world. Clearly this is a popular art form, not at all the tea ceremony and flower arranging which we associate with the Japanese. With the end of samurai culture, and the abandonment of Buddhism, old art forms fell on hard times. Sword-making all but disappeared, and the world’s finest metalworkers took to making figurative metal sculptures of extraordinary fineness. Ivory carving was no longer required for kimono accesories, and was now put in the service of creating mantlepiece decorations. For the first time Japanese goods were shown at expositions in Europe and America. To meet the new markets there, Japanese art and craft determined to please new tastes. For example, foreign markets in the high Victorian age seemed to crave Satsuma pottery, overembellished with gold and enamel: a decorative style of dubious taste, awkward shape, busy design and gaudy colour. Dubious taste, perhaps, but it is intriguing to see these Japanese artifacts crafted to meet a rough estimate of what our grandparents seemed to desire. If you are interested in Japanese art, history or popular culture, you’ll be drawn in to this dense and extensive show. It’s a funhouse of kitsch, the result of cultures in collision. There’s a locomotive with square wheels, and a doting daddy dressed in yukata robe and straw “boater” hat. Unmistakably, it’s a compendium of knockout graphic effects - polka dot cherry blossoms, rockets to rival the fourth of July, and a dress code straight out of Gilbert and Sullivan. You can tell I enjoyed it. ___________________________________________ This weekend Fired Up! takes place at the Metchosin Community Hall (May 28, 29 - 10 am to 5 pm, 4401 Williams Head Road, Metchosin, 385-9029). Now in it’s 21st year, this is the most prestigious pottery show on this island. A core group of the best ceramic artists annually invite their most admired peers for a two day show. This year’s theme is Art in the Garden. Get there early! ___________________________________________ Copyright © 2005Robert Amos Robert Amos is an artist and art writer who lives in Victoria, B.C.. He can be contacted by e-mail and you can view his paintings at www.robertamos.com