* Valentina Formisano (Gallary Curator, Raffaele Celentano Art gallery)

JAL PROJECT 2016: Workshop presentation/self introduction

Valentina Formisano*

Good morning everyone. My name is Valentina Formisano and I am an Italian researcher of Japanese Modern Art. I am honoured that you invited me to the JAL PROJECT 2016 and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the JAL PROJECT Executive Committee and specialists during JAL 2016. About myself and my research theme My field of specialization is Japanese Modern Art with a special focus on Japanese oil painting (yōga). I am particularly interested in the artistic and cultural exchange between Japan and Europe. My research theme is about how Japanese painters absorbed, in the Modern Era, elements of Western oil painting and the aim of my study is to analyse how deep European Art influenced Japanese yōga. I received my Bachelor, Master and Doctoral degrees all at one institution, called University of Naples “L’Orientale” (Italy). This University has its roots in the “Chinese School”, established in the early of XVIII century, and it has a long history in the study and research of Oriental languages. In 1903 a course for learning Japanese language has also been established. Since I wanted to study this language I decided to enrol at the University “L’Orientale”; here I studied, among others, not only Japanese language but also Japanese history, Japanese literature and Japanese art history. During my studies, I became particularly interested in Japanese art and for this reason I decided to specialize in this area of study.

In my Bachelor's thesis, The mitate-e of Suzuki Harunobu, I analysed some of the most interesting mitate-e prints of Harunobu (1724-1770). He was, needless to say, a representative ukiyo-e master of the Edo period (1603-1867). In many works of Harunobu the viewer has to read the real subject of the print. What now is called mitate-e is a group of prints in which, with a sense of parody and with great astuteness, Japanese and Chinese classic tales or popular legends are transposed in the manners and customs of the Edo period. For the viewer the amusement of these works lays in gaining the real subject of the work and in enjoying the acuteness of the artist. Usually the prints of Harunobu don’t have a title that could indicate the source of the mitate-e. Perhaps even at that time it was necessary to have a considerable education to unravel Harunobu ingenious plan by the print itself. In my Master’s thesis, Kuroda Seiki and Japanese oil painting, I examined the pictorial work of Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924) in light of Japanese oil painting. As is very well known, Kuroda Seiki held an important position within the world of Modern Japanese painting. He is particularly famous for his influence in revolutionizing mid-Meiji period (1868-1912) Western style painting in Japan and, with it, the general cultural sphere of the day through his introduction of the new plein air expression and liberal philosophies that he learned in France. Moreover, Kuroda Seiki pictorial activity is a good example of the intercultural exchanges between East and West that occurred in the last 100 years. Lakeside is one of Kuroda’s major works

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and, indeed, one of the most familiar works to art viewing audiences. While attending the Master course, I got a scholarship from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and I studied for one year at the Gakushūin University, in Tōkyō. Here I gathered valuable materials that I analyzed for my dissertation. After returning in Italy, I entered in the Doctoral program of the University of Naples “L’Orientale” with the aim to conduct scientific researches on Japanese Modern Art. In my Ph.D. dissertation, I explored the influence of the Italian Futurism on Japanese art word of the XX century. The Futurist movement spread all over the world and reached also Japan. The rejection of the past and the advent of a new era, advocated by the Futurist movement, attracted in the1910s and 1920s many young Japanese painters and it was the spark for the creation of a new art. One of the most important goals of my research was to examine the impact of the Futurist movement in Japan through the analysis of paintings executed by the most representative Japanese Futurist artists. Another important objective of my thesis was to underline, through this particular topic, the artistic and cultural exchange in the XX century between Japan and Italy. Needless to say, this two country have a long history of cultural exchange that continued also in the Modern era. In Japan, Yorozu Tetsugorō (1885-1927) was the artist who painted the first futurist works and the influence of Futurism can be clearly seen in two oil paintings by him titled Self-portrait with red eyes and Woman with a balloon. However, more than Tetsugorō was the painter Tōgō Seiji (1897-1978) who had the closest relation with the Italian Futurism. During his study abroad in Europe, Tōgō in the 1921 and in the following year met in France and in Italy the Futurist leader Marinetti but he also participated in several

Futurist exhibitions. He took part in the Exhibition of Italian Futurist Art at the Teatro Modernissmo in Bologna (21 January 1921), showing three works: Woman combing her hair, Movement of woman, Table. In the International Futurist Exhibition at the Winter Club in Turin (27 March-27 April 1922), the Japanese artist presented the same pictures. Tōgō activity in the Futurist movement is also documented by the second number of the magazine Il Futurismo (Published 1 January 1922), which reproduced two of his paintings: Woman with a parasol and Pantomime, both entitled Dynamism of a Woman. As mentioned previously, the activity of Tōgō Seiji, as a member of the Italian Futurism, can be confirmed inside the exhibition catalogues of the Futurism movement. Currently, these catalogues are stored, and can be consulted, at the Bologna State Archives. In addition, Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist movement, mentions Tōgō Seiji’s name in several articles published in Bologna’s newspapers. To give a concrete example, in the article “Futurism in Bologna: an interview to Marinetti”, published in Il Resto del Carlino (22 January 1922), Marinetti mentions the participation of the Japanese painter to the Italian Futurist movement. Moreover, the magazine Il Futurismo (1 June 1922), which reproduced two of Tōgō Seiji paintings, both entitled Dynamism of a Woman, also documents his activity in the Italian Futurism. This Futurist magazine can be also consulted through the Italian digital archive “C.I.R.C.E.” (Italian acronym for Computerized Catalogue of European Cultural Periodicals). Again, Tōgō Seiji, in the chapter “My resume” of his book Keep it a secret, described in detail his relation with the Italian Futurism. While attending the Doctoral course of the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, I got a scholarship from the Ishibashi Foundation

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and I enrolled, as a special researcher, in the Doctoral program in Art and Design of the University of Tsukuba. During these two years of studying abroad in Japan I conducted my researches for writing my Ph.D. thesis. At the graduate school of Tsukuba University, I studied under the supervision of Professor Omuka Toshiharu, a scholar of Japanese Modern Art. The University of Tsukuba has an excellent environment for study and research and his large library provides art books, various art journals and rich databases for students majoring in art. Through the activity research that I conducted in Japan I was able to gather valuable material that I could not obtain in Italy. In addition, before returning in Italy, I presented the results of my research to the Committee members of the Ishibashi Foundation. Moreover, I participated, with a paper titled “Tōgō Seiji and Italian Futurism”, to the Japan-Taiwan Tri-University Art History Graduate Student’s Symposium, held at the University of Tsukuba in December 2014. This presentation has been published in the Symposium proceedings. I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation in March 2016 and after I continued to conduct scholarly researches about Japanese oil painting, and in particular on the Taishō new artistic movements, consulting literature written in Japanese. On the results of my study, I am planning to write a research paper related on the artistic-cultural exchange between Kanbara Tai (1898-1997) and the Italian poet, writer, critic and organizer of the Futurism Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. While I was in Japan I visited the Ōhara Museum in order to do detailed researches on Kanbara Tai. Documents and materials on the Italian Futurism, gathered by Kanbara, are kept in the Library of Kanbara

Tai, presently housed in the Ōhara Museum. This library is composed by books, Manifestos, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. that Kanbara received first of all from Marinetti but also by literature that the Japanese artist gathered by himself. Kanbara was active not only as a researcher but also as a writer; in 1925 he wrote on Futurism a representative work, Futurism studies, also housed at the Ōhara Museum of Art. The material collected at this Museum has become a valuable source of information for preparing many exhibitions as the important one Futurismo e Futurismi, held in Palazzo Grassi in Venice in1986. In my future research, I plan to investigate the influence of Art Deco on the Japanese artist Yamana Ayao (1897-1980). Yamana Ayao, an important designer for the Shiseidō cosmetics company, was greatly influenced by the elegant Art Deco illustrations that appeared in France in the 1920s and 1930s and through his own work created a dignified, sensitive, and graceful image of woman. After the conclusion of JAL PROJECT 2016, I will stay in Japan for other 10 days for starting my new research on this topic and thanks to the suggestion of Mr. Takeshi Mizutani, I will start to gather literature from the Advertising Museum of Tōkyō (ADMT). My job status From this April I am working as curator in the Art Gallery of Raffaele Celentano in Sorrento (Naples, Italy). Raffaele Celentano is an international photographer born in Naples who has two galleries, one, as I said, in Sorrento and the other one in Munich (Germany). In the main room of his gallery in Italy is exposed his collection The Italians. The photographs have been taken in the last

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twenty-five years all over Italy and they express perfectly the atmosphere of our country. After the main room, it is possible to accede to the panoramic terrace, where the visitors will enjoy other pictures and an amazing view. In the back part of the gallery there is the so-called installation Memories in the wind, made by the artist himself. It plays with two images: on one hand it is a typical picture of the streets of Naples and on the other hand it wants to remind a dark room, where the artist was used to work. It seems that this work hasn’t a strong relation with Japanese Modern Art, the area of study in which I specialized, but I have a strong interest also in photography. In addition, in this art space I am planning to organize in a near future exhibitions and events linked with Japan to enlarge in Italy the knowledge of Japanese art and culture. Motive for application to JAL PROJECT 2016 By participating in such international workshop, I think that it will be possible to promote mutual exchange between researchers and Japanese Art librarians and to share information and opinions. Moreover, from an international perspective, I believe that through a mutual collaboration between researchers and experts of Japanese art materials, we can collaborate in disseminating universal knowledge of Japanese Art. In addition, I think that we can destroy language and cultural barriers by constructing a mutual understanding. In this light, I believe that this workshop will be a good opportunity to fulfil this important purpose. Again, from a personal perspective, I participated to JAL PROJECT 2016 also for enlarge my knowledge on Japanese art related materials and information with the hope to carry out in the future better

researches thanks to a better understanding of research methods used in Japan. I would like to finish by thanking you all for your attention.

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Valentina FORMISANO

formivale@gmail.com

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