ART-TRIBUTE:Japan Supernatural

Japanese artists across the centuries have created a lively parade of magical animals, fiendish imps, legendary monsters and ethereal spirits. Known in Japan by many names including yōkai, yūrei, bakemono and mononoke, manifestations of the paranormal are prevalent in folklore, literature, theatre and art. Featuring over 180 wildly imaginative works by some of the greatest Japanese artists of the past and present, from Katsushika Hokusai to Takashi Murakami, the Art Gallery of New South Wales presents the exhibition “Japan supernatural” as part of the 2019-20 Sydney International Art Series.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive

The highlight of “Japan Supernatural” is a monumental installation of sculpture and painting by Takashi Murakami that  includes a major new work, commissioned by the Gallery. Using 502 individual silkscreens to generate a richly layered surface the work titled “Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous After Staring at the Empty World Too Intensely, I Found Myself Trapped in the Realm of Lurking Ghosts and Monsters”, Murakami pays tribute to the exhibition while alluding to his own position as a contemporary artist exploring the imaginative worlds of historical Japanese art and confronting the spirits and beings within it. With its writhing yо̄kai (monsters), stampeding samurai, seething surface, intricate patterning and giant feline spirit, Murakami’s new painting is among his most dynamic and dramatic responses to Japanese art history. It resonates with Japan’s ‘pictures of the floating world’ (ukiyo-e), especially those of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, whose masterpieces are featured in Japan supernatural. Also in the exhibition are rich and nuanced works by leading female Japanese contemporary artists Fuyuko Matsui, Miwa Yanagi, Tabaimo and Chiho Aoshima. These artists continue the creative lineage of visualising the unseen, their works presented together with some of the greatest Japanese artists of the past including Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Kawanabe Kyōsai. The paintings, woodblock prints, illustrated books and objects come from museum collections around the world and from the Gallery’s Collection of Japanese art, which began in the late 1800s with the gift from Japan of a group of ceramics and bronzes to the then new Gallery, following the Sydney International Exposition in 1879. A key work from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is Toriyama Sekien’s five-metre-long, exquisitely rendered scroll “Night procession of the hundred demons” (c1772–81), the handscroll depicts a large cast of otherworldly characters. Additional works for Japan supernatural from the MFA, Boston include prints by renowned artists Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Kawanabe Kyōsai, with a selection of works from Yoshitoshi’s series “One hundred ghost stories from Japan and China” (1865) as well as “Momotarō scattering beans for setsubun” (1859). Prints designed by Kyōsai include “A nose-pulling contest with an elephant” and “The great tengu does calligraphy” from the series “One hundred pictures by Kyōsai” (1863). Among the many works from the Minneapolis Institute of Art are all images from the series “One hundred ghost stories” (c1831–32) by Katsushika Hokusai, including the portraits “The ghost of Oiwa”, “The mansion of plates” and “Laughing demoness” as well as paintings by Shibata Zeshin, Kyōsai and Yoshitoshi. From the British Museum comes the work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi “Mitsukuni defies the skeleton spectre conjured up by Princess Takiyasha” (1845-46). This woodblock print triptych depicts a notorious scene from legend, a terrifying giant skeleton or ōdokuro summoned by a princess in revenge for the murder of her father. Works in the exhibition are also drawn from the collections of The Broad in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Library of Australia, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, and from private collections in Japan, Germany and Australia.

Cover Photo: Takashi Murakami, Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous After Staring at the Empty World Too Intensely, I Found Myself Trapped in the Realm of Lurking Ghosts and Monsters, 2019, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Foundation Purchase 2019, ©︎ 2019 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Kaikai Kiki

Info: Curator: Melanie Eastburn, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney, Duration: 2/11/19-8/3/20, Days & Hours: Mon-Tue & Thu-Sun 10:00-17:00, Wed 10:00-22:00, www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au