scholarly journals No ‘Thing to Wear’: A Brief History of Kimono and Inappropriation from Japonisme to Kimono Protests

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-184
Author(s):  
MICHELLE LIU CARRIGER

In June 2015, a small strange protest erupted in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, around a sumptuous red kimono, provided to visitors to try on and emulate the 1876 painting La Japonaise, by Claude Monet. Protesters named themselves Decolonize Our Museums and took to the gallery and social media with strident messages condemning the Kimono Wednesdays try-on activity as racist, orientalist appropriation; soon after, counterprotesters faced off, defending the programme for sharing Japanese culture with the community. In this article, I consider the kimono protests as part of a history of kimono, internationally created yet indelibly marked as Japanese. In this context, the kimono protests provide an occasion to consider the ramifications of contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and appreciation. Through a performance-theory inflected analysis I propose a theatrical ethic of ‘inappropriation’ as a means of moving discourse and public performances of culture beyond the stultifying binaries of right/wrong or appreciation/appropriation.

1986 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 8-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy S. Allen

Learning about Japanese art has been difficult for Westerners. Limited access, language barriers, and cultural misunderstanding have been almost insurmountable obstacles. Knowledge of Japanese art in the West began over 150 years before the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853. Englebert Kaempfer (1657-1716), sent to Japan as a physician for the Dutch East India Company, befriended a young assistant who provided information for a book on Japanese life and history published in 1727. By 1850, more ethnographic information had been published in Europe. Catalogs of sales of Japanese art in Europe exist prior to 1850 and collection catalogs from major museums follow in the second half of that century. After the Meiji Restoration (1867) cultural exchange was possible and organizations for that purpose were formed. Diaries of 19th century travellers and important international fairs further expanded cross-cultural information. Okakura Kakuzo, a native of Japan, published in English about Japanese art and ultimately became Curator of the important collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The advent of photography made visual images easily accessible to Westerners. Great collectors built up the holdings of major American museums. In the 20th century, materials written and published in Japan in English language have furthered understanding of Japanese culture. During the past twenty years, travelling exhibitions and scholarly catalogs have circulated in the West. Presently monographs, dissertations and translated scholarly texts are available. Unfortunately, there is little understanding in the West of the organization of Japanese art libraries and archives which contain primary source material of interest to art historians.


Author(s):  
Elena I. Darius ◽  
◽  
Mikhail Yu. Shishin ◽  

Alexander Khudyashev is a sculptor, painter, teacher, organizer who played a prominent role in the artistic life of two Siberian cities - Tomsk and Barnaul in the 10–20s of the twentieth century. This article, based on the documents found, represents for the first time the main stages of his life and work, active participation in the All-Siberian Association of Artists «New Siberia». Until recently, very little was known about the life and work of this artist. The authors of the article, relying on archival materials, restored the biography of A. Khudyashev, in particular, more fully covered the Barnaul period of his life. On the basis of the documents found in the State Archive of the Altai Krai, the facts of the early years of the master's biography, the period of study at the Kazan Art School, and studies at private art studios in Moscow became known. The article describes his organizational work in Tomsk: on the board of the Tomsk Society of Art Lovers, participating in annual periodic art exhibitions, organizing a number of exhibitions («Exhibition of paintings and sculptures by local artists» and «Autumn exhibition of local and non-resident authors»). In Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), together with the assistant of the Leipzig Royal Academy of Arts, Czech artist F. Havelka, he participated in the preparation of the first in the history of the city art exhibition of Tomsk and Novikolaevsk professional artists and students of the Tomsk Real School and private studio F. Havelka. The pedagogical activity of the master is noted: in parallel with the creative and organizational work, Khudyashev taught sculpture in F. Havelka’s private drawing classes, drawing in the theological schooland first city women’s school, as well as in the Mariinsky female gymnasium. In 1918, the artist returned to Barnaul, where, according to A. Khudyashev's questionnaire recently discovered in the State Archive of the Altai Territory, he continued his teaching activities at the Barnaul Pedagogical Technical School and at the Workers' Faculty, and also worked in the Altai provincial department of public education. In addition, the artist was engaged in design activities. Becoming a member of the AllSiberian Society of Artists «New Siberia», he took part in the First All-Siberian exhibition of painting, sculpture, graphics and architecture, opened by members of the "New Siberia" in 1927 in Novosibirsk. The history of the Museum of Fine Arts in Barnaul, the first art museum in Altai, is connected with the name of A. Khudyashev. In difficult historical times, the change of the social and political system, the civil war, the introduction of the New Economic Policy A.V. Khudyashev sought to save a unique collection of the first art museum in Altai, understanding the importance and necessity of his work for future generations. The article introduces for the first time into the scientific parlance and analyzes three of his remaining paintings, now stored in the State Art Museum of the Altai Krai, tells about the composition and fate of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Barnaul.


Author(s):  
Виктория Владимировна Деменова

Статья посвящена музейным и частным собраниям буддийского искусства на Урале как особому феномену в истории отечественной и региональной культуры. Указаны основные музейные институции (среди них Екатеринбургский музей изобразительных искусств, Челябинский музей изобразительных искусств, Свердловский областной краеведческий музей, частные коллекции А.В. Глазырина и О.П. Малахова), проанализирован их состав и особенности формирования в ХIХ-ХХ вв. Выделены два основных источника попадания буддийской бронзы на Урал в течение последних двух веков: собрания купечества и промышленников и репрессированная бронзовая скульптура, привезенная в регион во время Великой Отечественной войны. The article is devoted to museum and private collections of Buddhist art in the Urals region, as a special phenomenon in the history of national and regional culture. The author indicates the main museum institutions, their composition and the specifics of formation in the 19th-20th centuries. In particular, the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, the Chelyabinsk Museum of Fine Arts, the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, private collections of A.V. Glazyrin and O.P. Malakhov. Two main sources of Buddhist bronze entering the Urals during the last two centuries are distinguished: a collection of merchants and industrialists and a repressed bronze sculpture, which was bringing to that region during the Second Great World War (1941-1945).


Articult ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
Vladislava L. Gayduk ◽  

The history of the Center for Contemporary Art on Yakimanka is analyzed through the prism of archival documents that are stored in the Media Library of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The investigation of the all types of the archival documents allows us to consider the Centre for contemporary art not as an art institution but as the embodiment of the “artistic tusovka”. This term was suggested by Victor Misiano. The magnitude of the exhibition and other art projects that were created in the Center (the newspaper of contemporary art “Vernisage”, the magazine “Artograph”, the Curators’ workshop, Visual Anthropology workshop, etc.) confirms this hypothesis. Despite the weak institutional ties that characterize artistic tusovka, the Centre became one of the important milestones in the development of contemporary Russian art.


Author(s):  
N.V. Alexandrova

The famous collections of new art works of the late 19th – early 20th centuries of the great collectors S.I. Shchukin and I.A. Morozov have a pronounced individual character. The documentary materials of these collectors, stored in the Department of manuscripts of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, are also distinct. The preservation, number and typology of documents reflect not only the personality and fate of the collectors, but also the history of the country. The first special address to the history of formation and the composition of I.A. Morozov's documents collection complements the collector's way and the fate of his collection. Leaving practically no personal and family documents, I.A. Morozov carefully handed over business papers to the museum curators, confirming the immaculate provenance of his collection. Drawing attention to personal provenance funds brings to the fore the importance of their acquisition and preservation. Знаменитые собрания произведений нового искусства конца XIX – начала XX века великих коллекционеров С.И. Щукина и И.А. Морозова носят ярко выраженный индивидуальный характер. Также непохожи и документальные материалы этих собирателей, хранящиеся в отделе рукописей Государственного музея изобразительных искусств им. А.С. Пушкина. Сохранность, численность и типология документов отражают не только личность и судьбу коллекционеров, но и историю страны. Первое специальное обращение к истории формирования и составу коллекции документов И.А. Морозова дополняет коллекционерский путь собирателя и судьбу его коллекции. Не оставив практически никаких личных и семейных документов, И.А. Морозов бережно передал музейным хранителям деловые бумаги, подтверждающие безупречный провенанс его коллекции. Привлечение внимания к фондам личного происхождения актуализирует важность их комплектования и сохранения.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 9-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Santucci ◽  
J.P. Uhlenbrock

AbstractThe rock-cut tombs of Cyrene's Northern Necropolis have survived to the present day in a pitifully ruinous state because of the looting that has taken place since antiquity and because of their frequent re-use as dwellings or stables. An important archive of typewritten reports, photographs, sketches, and correspondence pertaining to this necropolis is preserved principally in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and documents the first officially-sanctioned archaeological excavation at Cyrene. This was conducted by an American archaeological mission lead by Richard Norton from October 1910 to the end of April 1911 and was jointly sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The documents, particularly those that chronicle the excavation of four tombs and their associated finds, represent an important resource for our understanding of the history of the exploration of this necropolis. They not only offer information on individual monuments, but they also illustrate the typological range of artefacts selected for funerary ritual from the late Classical period into the second century AD, but principally during the Hellenistic period. Additionally, the documents reveal particular funerary practices, such as the successive re-use of tombs that took place at least from the late Hellenistic period onwards.


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