For Immediate Release:

"Japan and the West: Japanese and Japonist prints from the Permanent Collection of the La Salle University Art Museum" on view in the 20th Century Gallery Hallway, November 20, 2008 - February 20, 2009

Artists: Utagawa Kunisada * Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec * Toyohara Chikanobu * Mizuna Hidekata * Bertha Clausen Jaques * Akira Matsumoto * Kunisada II * Toyohara Kunichika * Félix Hilaire Buhot * Utagawa Kuniteru * Ogata Gekko * Mary Cassatt * Yoshimitsu Nomura * Ryohei Tanaka

A selection of prints by 19^th and 20^th century Japanese, French, and American artists from La Salle University Art Museum’s permanent collection demonstrate the influence of Japanese aesthetics on Western artists and the counter-influence of Western art and materials on Japanese prints.

Prints by Utagawa Kunisada (Kunisada I) (1786­­–1864), and Kunisada II (1823–1880)created with vegetable dyes are juxtaposed with later works by artists such as Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900), who employed aniline dyes imported from Europe. In the later 19^th century, French artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) and Félix Hilaire Buhot (1847–1898) reinterpreted compositional strategies from Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts into their lithographs and etchings while Japanese artists like Kunichika and Toyohara Chikanobu (1838–1912) experimented with Western perspective and modeling. In the late 19^th century, Western artists used Japanese ukiyo-e formal devices to move Modern Art in the direction of flatness and abstraction; in the 20^th century, Modernist Japanese artists, such as Akira Matsumoto (1936–), incorporated the originally Japanese-inspired flatness and abstraction of Western Modernism into their work bringing this trend back full circle.

The La Salle University Art Museum is located on the lower level of Olney Hall on the campus of La Salle University at 19^th St. and Olney Ave. Hours are 10 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday and 2 to 4 PM on most Sundays during the University’s Fall and Spring semesters. Admission is free, though donations are accepted. Classes and group visits by appointment. Special tours can be arranged. For further information call 215-951-1221 or visit our website at http://www.lasalle.edu/museum.