Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/22622#ixzz2OWPIduC1
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/22622)
Yasumasa Morimura's Portrait (Futago), 1988 is a typical example of the above
issues. Portrait (Futago) intentionally takes from Edouard Manet's Olympia(1863), a master piece of
western canon. Morimura imitate Manet's historic masterpiece by
recreating the scenes of 'Olympia' through wearing wig, make-up and creating
the similar setting. His work lead to the reflection of the Japanese artists'
role under the western influence and the gender identity.
Western arts has a
important status in art history and influence different arts development in
parts of the world . Because of its influential role in the art world and its
sophisticated development, many arts development or values are based on the
Western side. it seems to become a guideline of art. Japan is also a region
that under the sphere of western arts influence. "Since the Meiji
restoration of 1868, it brought with western influence in Japanese art
world" (D'Evelyn). Western
culture started to invade into Japanese society, especially in arts. Japanese
artist started to imitate the western painting style. The traditional Japanese
painting lost its ground. Morimura is also under a generation which
experienced the western invasion into local art word and culture. "Morimura loved to draw in the
traditional Western manner when
he was a student. He copied Western masters largely because his school,
like most art schools in Japan, taught Western art and art history" (Brew). Later on, he started to concern the
western influence on Japanese culture as a Japanese artist. In Portrait (Futago), Morimura attempts to questioning the status of western arts
in the Asian arena and the role of Japanese or Asian arts under the invasion of
western culture in his work Portrait
(Futago) by showing
an Asian figure which replaces the original nude Olympia in a European painting canon. He,
himself, situating in a western painting setting represents the Japanese
artists under the western arts atmosphere.
Gender
identity is another important theme of Portrait
(Futago). In western
painting, female nude is a traditional genre. It was a master genre of the official
French salons of the nineteenth century. Many artists had accessed this theme
such as Courbet to Matisse and Picasso. Indeed
,the nude female in Manet's Olympia is as a product for male gaze and sexual
desires. "He tried to profane the idealized nude in the academic
tradition" (Musee d'Orsay, 2006). Morimura further develop this topic by
questioning the gender identity of nude female in the western painting. In the Portrait (Futago), " Morimura makes up his body, wears a wig and
imitates with his masqueraded body-image a female gender-role as a servant of
sexual desires. What the artist presents in his performance remains the male
gaze on an 'incomplete' female body-image" (Wagner, 2004). He try to question the gender
identity of nude female in the western painting. On the other hand, his masquerading
is incomplete as the missing of female sexual identification, breasts, and the
assumed presence of male sexual organ, penis. What are the lines for the gender
identity (sexual organs, costumes, make-up, others perceptions)?" The
placement of Morimura as a woman destabilizes the notion of fixed, binary gender
roles of male and female that is prevalent in existing culture, and instead
constructs a new, more elastic gender identity, where stereotypes of male and
female are subverted "(Roca,
2006).
Reference:
D'Evelyn , H.
(n.d.). Western encounter: The transformation of japanese art.
Retrieved from
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/kucera/YoshidaWebsite/evolution/essay_pages/heather_d.evelyn.htm
Brew , J.
(n.d.). Yasumasa morimura - the art of self-portaiture in a post-modern
global japan. Retrieved from
http://outsiderjapan.pbworks.com/w/page/9758570/Yasumasa Morimura - The Art of
Self-Portaiture in a Post-Modern Global Japa
Musee d'Orsay.
(2006). Olympia. Retrieved from
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=851&L=1&tx_commentaire_pi1[showUid]=7087&no_cache=1
Roca, Raymond
Roca, R. (2006,
03). Cultural identity is constructed and challenged by stereotypes.
Retrieved from http://www.agero-stuttgart.de/REVISTA-AGERO/ARTICOLE IN LIMBI
STRAINE/Cultural identity de RR.htm
Wagner, B. (2004, 12
21). Gender - double trouble and transgression: Yasumasa morimura's
appropriation of a desirable body. Retrieved from
http://academinist.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/010112Wagner_Yasumasa.pdf
