The Bonnefantenmuseum presents The beauty of Silence. Japanese prints by Tsukioka Kogyo an exhibition on view 15.01.2012 – 08.04.12, in collaboration with the Japan Museum SieboldHuis, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Tsukioka Kogyo, Bonnefantenmuseum
The presentation The Beauty of Silence – Japanese prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo links up with a series of ‘art on paper’ exhibitions in the Bonnefantenmuseum, and revolves around the work of one of the great Japanese print artists of the turn of the last century, Tsukioka Kōgyo. Kōgyo became well-known for his popular depictions of the typically Japanese Noh theatre, which underwent a real revival at the end of the 19th century. He also depicted animals and landscapes. His technique in creating coloured woodcuts is so refined that it is indistinguishable from painting.
The year of Tsugioka Kōgyo’s birth, 1869, coincided with great political and economic upheaval in Japan. From 1603 to 1868, the ‘Shoguns’ had held sway over a feudal power system, controlling all the distinguished families in Japan. Though the emperor was still the official ruler, he was in effect a hostage as well.
The emperor’s power was restored in 1868, at the start of the Meiji period, named after the first ‘modern’ emperor of Japan. Emperor Meiji differed from the Shoguns in his interest in the West, including Western art. He also ushered in the industrial revolution in Japan, which had already spread from England and Belgium to Europe and the United States years before. Furthermore, he promoted a central government, with Tokyo as its economic and political centre, and gradually opened the borders of the closed-off and introspective country. However, this modernisation of Japan also went hand in hand with the rise of a strong nostalgia for the country’s own past and for oriental values.
The presentation is been shown on the thrid floor of the museum and presents 70 works of Tsugioka Kōgyo, of which 50 will be prints, 4 men high rollpaintings and illustrative objects. – www.bonnefanten.nl