Essay Sample on Art and Cultural Exchange

Introduction

Gustav Klimt's oil on canvas painting Lady with a Fan (1917-1918) is a bright example of the influence that the Japanese art has exercised upon the Western painting tradition. First of all, the woman is dressed in a kimono-like apparel decorated with Japanese ornaments. She is also holding a Japanese fan. Her whole posture is very similar to the way women are portrayed on the traditional Ukiyo-e prints. Just like the woman in Kushi Comb by Utamaro Kitagawa Utamaro (ca. 1785), Klimt's lady with a fan poses half turned, looking in the distance to the right side of the painter. Her long white neck and her left shoulder are open to the view. Other parallels are the high loose bun holding the dark hair, her red lips and her dark moon-like eyebrows. Secondly, the background of the painting exhibits pronounced Asian motifs with its bright floral ornament and picturesque birds. Finally, the very choice of colors testifies to the Japanese influence. In his book on Klimt's art, Dani Cavallaro writes about the love for intermediate colors that Klimt shares with the Japanese painters. According to Cavallaro, Klimt started experimenting with the shades of blue quite late in his career and in Lady with a Fan he introduced the purplish blue shade (Cavallaro 160). By ingeniously incorporating these influences into his work, Klimt managed to create a portrait, incredibly rich in color and nuance.

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Lady with a Fan was created within the artistic framework of the later Art Nouveau movement which was popular from 1890 to 1910 and often manifested itself in architecture, applied art and decorative arts. Art Nouveau is characterized by the usage of the "natural forms and structures with emphasis on plants and flowers ... a heavy use of abstraction, lots of color and a common theme of women surrounded by flowers" as well as a strong Japanese influence ("Lady with a Fan," Gustavklimt.net). Lady with a Fan with its rich palette and Japanese motives clearly falls within the Art Nouveau tradition. It is known that Klimt read and greatly admired the Japanese art with which he got acquainted through an art journal, Le Japon artistique ("Lady with a Fan," Gustavklimt.net). Thus, Lady with a Fan is an embodiment of the dialogue of different cultures and their productive synergy.

The Fitting by Mary Cassatt is another example of hybrid art where Western art meets heavy Japanese influences. Mary Cassatt is an American Impressionist artist who moved to live in Europe. As an expatriate and an artist, Cassat keenly felt the global changes the world was going through and she managed to reflect this dynamic mood in her work. In The Fitting, the painter is obviously imitating the tradition of Ukiyo-e prints with their attention to the scenes of daily life and their transient beauty. Cassat creates the distinctly Japanese two-dimensional feel through her usage of a limited palette with warm shades of brown and okra as well as by emphasizing the lines rather than the coloring. Another parallel is the floral ornament which serves as the background for the female figures. Finally, Japanese influence is felt in the way the two figures are positioned on the canvas which also serves as a social commentary upon the class difference between the two models.

Art has always acted like a certain mirror into which the civilization could look and see the current trends and also promises of the changes to come. Barbara Mundy, associate professor of Art History at Fordham University imaginatively call artists "agents of change, agents of absorbtion" (qtd. in Zelig). Today art is reflecting the growing multicultural diversity of the modern world in the whole complexity of the dialectic of the local and the global. Miss Ko2 by Takashi Murakami is a demonstrative example of this dialectic. It is a hybrid artifact made of elements of the Eastern and the Western cultural canons. While the influence of manga and anime traditions is easily felt in the facial features and the body proportions, there are also a number of obvious Western cliches. Miss Ko2 is a classical long-haired blond, a beauty stereotype enjoyed by several generations of the consumers of mass culture. Her unnaturally long legs, thin waist, big breasts are an ironic commentary upon the Western Barby-doll beauty standards. The white bow on her head, which closely resembles the famous Playboy bunny ears, seems to be a symbol of the Puritan hypocrisy of the Western worldview. By combining these influences with the manga and anime elements Murakami illustrates the globalization which is happening on the cultural level as well. Yet, this sculpture also makes a clear statement that without profound knowledge of the local background the subtle interplay of the cultural allusions will be lost upon the viewer.

Works Cited

Cassat, Mary. "The Fitting." Annenberg Learner, Annenberg Foundation, http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/84/index.html

Cavallaro, Dani. Gustav Klimt: a Critical Reappraisal. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2018.

"Lady with a Fan." Gustavklimt.net, www.gustavklimt.net/lady-with-a-fan/.

Murakami, Takashi. Miss ko2. Annenberg Learner, Annenberg Foundation, http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/82/index.html

Utamaro, Kitagawa. "Kushi Comb." Theartstack.com, theartstack.com/artist/utamaro-kitagawa/kushi-comb.

Zelig, Eva. Converging Cultures. Annenberg Learner, Annenberg Foundation, www.learner.org/courses/globalart/theme/1/index.html.