Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec: a meeting in Seattle

From July 21 to December 3, 2023, the Seattle Asian Art Museum presents “Renegade Edo and Paris: Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec”

Source: Seattle Art Museum · Image: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760 – 1849), “Yoshida on the Tokaido” (Tokaido Yoshida), from the series “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)”, ca. 1830-32

The Seattle Art Museum states that “at the end of the 19th century, both Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Paris were home to a rising middle class that challenged the status quo and expressed antiestablishment attitudes. Organized by SAM, this exhibition explores the shared subversive hedonism that underlies both Japanese ukiyo-e prints and the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Through around 90 impressions drawn from the Seattle Art Museum’s Japanese prints collection as well as private holdings of Toulouse-Lautrec’s work, this exhibition offers a critical look at the renegade spirit in the graphic arts in both Edo and Paris, highlighting the social impulses—pleasure seeking and theatergoing—behind the burgeoning art production.”

“Renegade Edo and Paris” will not be the only exhibition focusing on Japanese printmaking to be seen in Seattle in the coming months, as from October 19, 2023, to January 21, 2024, the Seattle Art Museum will present the exhibition “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence, from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston”, which includes 100 woodblock prints, paintings, and illustrated books by Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), from the MFA’s collection, with over 200 works by his teachers, students, rivals, and admirers. In addition, since October 20, 2022, the Seattle Art Museum also hosts the exhibition “Deities & Demons: Supernatural In Japanese Art”.