Graceful and Tough: The Feminine Gaze – Works from the Yokohama Museum of Art Collection
The Evolution of American Photography, 1860s-1940s
In conjunction with the ”Mary Cassatt Retrospective” (June 25-September 11, 2016) organized by the museum, this edition of the collection focuses on the work of female artists.
Today, a woman aiming to be a painter might enroll in an art school. But at the time the state-run Tokyo School of Fine Arts (precursor to the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts) opened in 1889, there were no female applicants. It was a difficult era for women with artistic aspirations. WATANABE Yuko, the daughter of GOSEDA Horyu I and the younger sister of pioneering Western-style painter GOSEDA Yoshimatsu, was a trailblazing female figure in Western-style painting in Japan. In addition to being born into a favorable environment, Yuko, a highly ambitious painter, was chosen to represent her country at the World's Columbian Exposition (held in Chicago in 1893). She showed her work "Baby" in the Women’s Building, which also featured a mural by Mary CASSATT. Along with works by artists from the Goseda school, in this exhibit we present a number of other paintings from Yuko’s era.
We also present works by foreign female artists in the hope that viewers might consider the significance of CASSATT’s theme of “mother and child.”
The post-World War II era saw the emergence of numerous female artists in Japan. Many of these women conveyed their strong survival instinct and human grace through their works. Here, we present a diverse range of works from the collection by women who explored their own forms of expression based on a unique aesthetic.
In the photography gallery, we present a special exhibit on the development of American photography from the 1860s to the 1940s in connection to the U.S. born CASSATT.
