Journal Article

Kitagawa Tamiji: Painting in the Pursuit of Pigmented Knowledge of Self and Other

Winther-Tamaki, Bert

2013

Overview

[...]Kitagawa was apparently involved with the organiza- tion of an exhibition of Japanese ukiyo-e prints held in Mexico City in 1931 and the simplified flat shapes of bold color in his self-portrait, which is signed in Japa- nese script, reflects his interest in such ukiyo-e works as Sharaku's actor prints of the late eighteenth century.20 Thus, significantly, Kitagawa's assimilation to Mexican culture allowed him to begin exploring and re-identifying with the culture of his erstwhile homeland. \"27 Indeed, the tapirlike prehensile appear- ance of the nose of this bather may be added to the list of her notable oddities. [...]while painters con- ventionally treated the motif of nude female bathers in the outdoors as expressions of \"communion in nature,\" as has been claimed of the previously mentioned scene of bathing women by Fermín Revueltas (Fig. 4),28 these two women huddle nervously in a waterhole amid trees shorn of all but a few schematic decorative fronds of leafage. [...]while these expatriate Japanese painters both depicted white- robed children sharply delineated against a blank back- ground, Kitagawa gave his children a dark brown skin pigmentation and an intense sense of pathos that make Fujita's children seem pale and picturesque by contrast. [...]with the delicate finesse of Fujita's watercolor and ink-on-paper technique, Kita- gawa's picture is striking for a roughness of handling that evokes the kinds of pictures these children them- selves might have painted in Kitagawa's school. The Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937 and rapidly led to the occupation of Beijing by Japanese military forces. [...]Umehara Ryüzaburö's series of canvases depicting the ancient halls of the Forbidden City in a decorative impressionist style, which were painted in Beijing between 1939 and 1944 while the artist enjoyed the protection of the Japanese military occupation, de- lighted Tokyo audiences as aesthetic emblems of Japanese power.51 From Japanese perspectives in the late 1930s, how- ever, Mexico had nothing of the cachet of an interna- tional center of progressive contemporary art like Paris, nor was it associated with the aims and fruits of Japanese imperialist expansion like China; Kitagawa's importation of images of Mexican girls was an anomaly.

• Publisher: Duke University Press,University of Hawaii Press
• Subject: 20th century / Archives / Art and Visual Culture / Art education / Art exhibitions / Art exhibits / Art museums / Artists / Asian art / Asian Studies / Children / Cultural identity / Cultural Studies / Females / Indian art / Japanese language / Modernist art / Museums / Occupations / Roughness / Self portraiture / Skin color / Society / Yoga