From 17 July 2020 to 21 February 2021, the MUSEC | Museum of Cultures of Lugano hosts KAKEMONO, the largest exhibition ever dedicated to Japanese painting.
After the art of the twentieth century, read through the lens of primitivist sculpture, and after the masterpieces of ethnic art of the peoples of Borneo, the MUSEC, in its new headquarters in Villa Malpensata, offers an in-depth study of the oriental art that it constitutes, since 2005 , one of the research and development poles of the Museum.
The exhibition, curated by Matthi Forrer, retraces five centuries of Japanese figurative tradition between the 90th and XNUMXth centuries, through XNUMX kakemono, arranged along a thematic path that allows you to explore in depth the substance of the pictorial languages, coming from the unprecedented collection, collected with philological care by the Turin doctor Claudio Perino.
Il kakemono, a very common genre in East Asia, consists of a precious roll of fabric or paper, painted or calligraphed, which is hung on the walls during special occasions or used as decoration according to the seasons of the year.
Unlike Western canvases or boards, i kakemono they have a soft structure, and are conceived for a chronologically limited use: they are in fact works that participate in time and movement, as they are exhibited in the alcove of Japanese houses or left to swing for a few hours outside, perhaps in the garden, for the ceremony some tea. Works which, in the variety of their subjects, describe ineffable beauty and the passage of time, reflecting a typically oriental aesthetic and philosophical conception.
Among the most used subjects were wild animals such as dragons and tigers, or plants, flowers and birds, all loaded with symbolic meanings that helped to establish and consolidate the social status of the owners of the works.
The exponents of this Kano school founded a widespread network of painting academies throughout Japan, which from the XNUMXth century to the end of the XNUMXth century enjoyed the support of the ruling classes. THE samurai, the Buddhist clergy and the wealthy indeed entrusted themselves to them for the realization of kakemonofollowing the fashion of the period.
Only from the XNUMXth century did an emerging urban class of artisans and merchants encourage the development of more diverse pictorial interpretations that focused on more naturalistic subjects and real-life scenes.
Other painters then came out of the rigidity of these traditional schemes, favoring innovation and developing more personal styles.
The exhibition itinerary is divided into five thematic sections (Flowers and birds; Anthropomorphic figures; Animals; Various plants and flowers; Landscapes) and proposes the works of the major exponents of the period in question, such as Yamamoto Baiitsu (1783-1856), Tani Buncho (1763-1840), Kishi Ganku (1749-1838), Ogata Korin (1658-1716).
The exhibition opens with the paintings of flowers and birds (kacho-ga) which play on an allegorical association drawn from the poems haiku, and continues with those representing anthropomorphic figures, initially limited to some Buddhist divinities, followers or disciples of the Buddha, portraits of Shinto figures, or even characters borrowed from the Chinese tradition. It was only in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries that ordinary people also began to appear.
From the analysis of the iconography of the animals which, unlike that of the birds, are represented in a meager way, we arrive at the section of the paintings that offer plants and flowers, linked to the months and seasons.
Among plants, bamboo has an important symbolic meaning that communicates a sense of flexibility, resistance and security. For many scholars and men of letters, the pictorial representation of bamboo was a very important exercise, closely related to calligraphy due to its technical characteristics, so much so that some artists dedicated their entire lives to it.
The exhibition closes with landscape paintings that convey an idealized concept of nature. In these works, rivers, lakes, streams, pools or streams are often reproduced in the foreground and mountain peaks in the background and, on a smaller scale, bridges, temples, pavilions, buildings and small human figures. It is particularly interesting to note how this genre is almost always made with ink alone, with rare hints of colour.
The path is enriched by two original armors of Samurai and some albums of Japanese photographs from the end of the XNUMXth century, with richly decorated lacquer covers, from the MUSEC collections.
The exhibition is accompanied by a Skira catalog available in both Italian and English editions, edited by Matthi Forrer.
The exhibition, produced by the Culture and Museums Foundation of Lugano and the Turin Museums Foundation, enjoys the support of the City of Lugano, the Republic and Canton of Ticino DECS - Department of Education, Culture and Sport, SWISSLOS, the Ada Foundation Ceschin and Rosanna Pilone.
