Floating worlds

On the occasion of the Normandie Impressioniste festival, Les Franciscaines and Tokyo's Mori Art Museum explore Japonisme through the work of contemporary Japanese artists. This exhibition traces the reciprocal influence of Japanese and French artists, from the Impressionist era to the present day.

The opening up of Japan to the Western world during the Meiji era (1868-1912) led to the spread ofUkiyo-e (images of the floating world) to Europe, especially France. Japanese prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai, as well as fans, kimonos, vases and screens, were quickly collected by Impressionist artists as the medium for this new aesthetic.
screens. Artists such as Degas, Renoir and Vallotton were all the more sensitive to them as certain aesthetic concerns brought them closer to these modes of representation.

Freedom of perspective, flat tints of color, choice of subjects... Japanese worksappeared to them as liberated from many of the rules of classical Western painting, handed down from Antiquity.

Against these worksof the past, the exhibition brings together contemporary Japanese artworkssuch as sculptures by Lee Ufan, photographs by Mari Katayama and Morimura Yasumasa, and prints by Kazama Sachiko.

This confrontation, mise en abyme and dialogue between two continents, two periods and two cultures where aesthetics strangely resonate with each other, creates an invisible and permanent link. The exhibition brings together major Impressionist worksfrom the Musée d'Orsay, the BnF and the Musée Rodin, influenced by Japonisme, with contemporary worksfrom the collections of the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo).

An aesthetic shock similar to that felt by the Impressionist masters.

Curated by Martin Germann, associate curator at the Mori Art Museum and independent curator, and Annie Madet-Vache, director of the Musée des Franciscaines and art historian.