Possibly the most directly Japan-influenced of his works are the huge calligraphy-like black strokes he produced in the 1970s. Rather than his fascination with Japan fading as the boom slipped into the past and new art movements appeared, it seemed to grow stronger with time. For the rest of his long life, Miro was a dedicated and extraordinarily prolific creator of avant garde art in various forms, from paintings to pottery, collages to tapestry. The first piece in the exhibition, a 1917 portrait of his friend Ricart with a background of familiar ukiyo-e images, is the only example of standard “Japonisme” on view. It had a Japanese art and craft import shop as well as several collectors of Japanese artworks that the young Miro would have known well. Then as now, Barcelona was a wealthy and highly cultured city, having hosted the World Expo five years before Miro’s birth. Van Gogh had already included Japanese motifs in his paintings, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera The Mikado had delighted audiences all over Europe. A Catalan, Miro was born in Barcelona in 1893, at the height of “Japonisme,” the European boom for all things Japanese. Miro is the less well-known of the three great Spanish painters of the 20th century, the others being Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. What Miro takes from Japan is buried deep inside his highly personal and never obvious or polite artistic vision. See the Bunkamura YouTube video on the exhibition, here.ĭon’t expect any polite references to wabi sabi or other familiar Japanese aesthetic values. Indeed, the exhibition tells a fascinating story about the lasting status of Japan as a beacon of inspiration - and also shows how cultures can interact and cross borders even in the most difficult circumstances.
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