ARTIFACTS

Your wife dumps you. What do you do? Some people might celebrate by busting out the bachelor gear and hitting the town. Others might sit teary-eyed at the kitchen table, nursing a glass of whisky and thumbing through dog-eared photo albums. When photographer Masahisa Fukase’s wife left him, he caught the night train to his native Hokkaido and, over the next few years, shot a series of dark and disturbing photographs of ravens. Originally exhibited in the 1970s, The Solitude of Ravens can now be seen at Omotesando’s Rat Hole Gallery. Dark, grainy silhouettes of flocks in stormy skies create moods of loneliness and despair. These are balanced by sharp, angular close-ups that reveal the tough, brutal practicality of the birds, countering any slide into self-pitying sentimentality. Through these stark images, Fukase seems to have found the means to both express and curtail his feelings. Rat Hole Gallery, through Oct 12. See exhibition listings (Harajuku/Aoyama) for details. CBL

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By Jeff Michael Hammond

Masterpieces of the Louvre Museum

France's pride and joy comes to Yokohama

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Source, 1820 courtesy of © RMN-H. Lewandowski

That the Yokohama Museum of Art is holding an exhibition from the collection of the world-famous Louvre Museum may not be such a big deal in itself—the famed museum’s works have been shown here a number of times before. However, this is the first time that a large portion of the Louvre’s collection of prized 19th-century paintings has come to Japan.
And this is not insignificant, as the collection is considered by the French to be the heart of the Louvre’s treasure trove.

“Masterpieces from the Louvre Museum:19th-Century French Paintings,” according to its curator Shimbata Yasuhide, is therefore an important exhibition both for the Yokohama Museum of Art and the Louvre itself. Three years in the making, the show boasts 73 works, the bulk of them being shown in Japan for the first time, including famous paintings by Romanticists such as Delacroix, and Neoclassicists such as Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres—the centerpiece being the latter’s The Turkish Bath (ca. 1859-63).

The same artist’s 1820 work, The Source, opens the first section, which is dedicated to History Painting. Encompassing not only scenes from history but also mythological stories and Christian themes, this style often used symbolism to convey its message. In The Source, the eternal feminine (seen as the source of life) is symbolized by a young nude girl. As such, the picture is an idealized image of womanhood as much as it is the result of observation from life.

Moving away from this style, many artists began to depict contemporary events. One such figure was David, a teacher of the young Ingres, who was essentially a Neoclassicist but who went on to paint famous moments in France’s cultural history.

Amid the horrors of the French revolution, death was everywhere, but few murders captured the popular imagination as that of the revolutionary Jean Paul Marat. David’s famous 1793 painting, depicting Marat alone in his bath just after having been fatally stabbed in the chest, is one of the highlights of the show. Another is The Turkish Bath in the “Orientalism” section. In many ways, this painting is the pinnacle of the artist’s life-long studies of the female form, set in the exotic climes of a public bathhouse.

Jacques-Louis David (atelier), The Death of Marat courtesy of © RMN-G. Blot/C. Jean LOUVRE

In the climate of change resulting from the French revolution, a number of new types of paintings emerged in 19th-century France. Portraiture, previously the privilege of the nobility, came within the grasp of a new class of citizens. Although Francois Gerard’s Napoleon I in Coronation Robes (1806) may dominate this section, portraits of the emerging bourgeoisie are also of interest.

Landscapes around this time began to break free from their traditional role as idealized backdrops to scenes depicted in historical paintings. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot’s earthy palette, seen in a number of his works here, reflects a more naturalist approach, which went on to influence several later painters, such as Cezanne. Corot’s fellow naturalists, including Millet and Dupres, are also featured.

The popular Theodore Gericault represents Romanticism, which was another tendency in French art of this period. His Scene of the Deluge (early 1800s) is a foreboding canvas of dark clouds and swirling water in which people cling desperately to rocks and a horse struggles to keep afloat.

As well as being beautiful in themselves, the works assembled here also highlight the influence French paintings of this period had on the subsequent development of modern art. And they are only a train ride away.

Yokohama Museum of Art, through July 18. See exhibition listings for details.

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