ART TALK: BLOOMING JAPAN

On April 23, 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery hosted a conversation on late 1800s Japanese photography.

The art talk, moderated by Eugenio Calini (Co-owner of 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery) was attended by Francesco Paolo Campione (Director of MUSEC – Museo delle Culture Lugano), in dialogue with Paolo Gerini (President of Ada Ceschin and Rosanna Pilone Foundation), and exhibition’s curator Moira Luraschi.

At the end of 1800s, Japan was the site of a unique marriage. Western photographic technology, which was no more than thirty years old at the time, united with the centuries-old craftsmanship of local painters who embellished the black and white albumen prints with colour applied by brushstroke even to the tiniest surfaces. The results were of astonishing beauty and the subjects represented so life-like that it is difficult to distinguish the best examples of the genre from modern colour photographs.

The style of the so-called ‘Yokohama School’ was influenced by the tastes of the very first Western globetrotters visiting Japan who were the first collectors of these photographs.

The photographs were often housed within the most splendid souvenir albums their covers decorated in lacquer and multi-media inlays, presenting to the Western viewer an idyllic country, a land of eternal Spring: a little Oriental Eden where time had stood still, despite the rampant modernisation of the period. The hand tinted colouring by the colourists helped to accentuate – and at times recreate ex novo – the beauty of the blossoms or Autumn colours.

Find out more about our ‘Blooming Japan’ exhibition here.