Japan Society: Edo Pop

The current exhibit at the Japan Society, Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints, is one of those that must seem a great idea on paper but that inevitably end up a fail in the actual presentation.  As the brochure accompanying the exhibit notes:

"Since the late twentieth century, a global shift from industrial to consumer culture has made the pop sensibility of ukiyo-e relevant to the modern era.  Like Edo-period artists, today's artists continue to explore the world and create works that colorfully reflect their lives in the present moment."

That's all well and good.  The problem, though, is that the continuity in intent described in the above quote is not reflected in a continuity of style.  The ukiyo-e prints by such masters as Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige display a degree of artistry and sensitivity that is nowhere approached by the twentieth century works hung indiscriminately beside them.  The result is a level of visual incongruity that is distracting to the viewer.

It is the contemporary artists who fare worse in this exhibit.  The works of such artists as Paul Binnie and Masami Teraoka definitely have merit in their own right.  Hung beside the prints of the above mentioned masters, though, they can only appear crude and garish.  These contemporary artists would have been much better served by an exhibit limited to a display of late twentieth century Japanese art.  They simply cannot compete with the masterpieces of eighteenth and nineteenth century art shown here.  Instead, they inevitably suggest a decline in the quality of Japanese popular culture itself.  In that sense, Teraoka's McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan succeeds far better than the artist could ever have envisioned in depicting the deleterious effects of Westernization in Japan following the end of the Edo Period.  It is readily apparent to the viewer how much has actually been lost.

I would strongly recommend seeing this exhibit, but I would also suggest that the viewer go through it twice - once to see the Edo Period prints, and once to see the contemporary artwork.  Among the Edo ukiyo-e, three selections from Hokusai's One Hundred Tales stand out, not only for their artistry but also because they evidence so well the fascination with the grotesque that even today permeates Japanese popular culture.

The exhibit continues through June 9, 2013.