Page 86 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong
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Only until we see the grace and beauty of Asian aesthetic as they are,
can they rival the best of Western cultures.
- Ryuzaburo Umehara
Fig 5 Ryuzaburo Umehara, Cannes, oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm, Painted in 1920 Fig.3 Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) Le Boulevard Montmartre, Temps Pluie, Après-Midi,
圖5 梅原龍三郎《康城》油彩 畫布 1920年作
1897, Christie's New York, May 12, 1993 Lot 18, Sold For US$ 3,302,500
圖3 卡米耶・畢沙羅《林蔭大道蒙馬特》 1897年作
佳士得紐約 1993年5月12日 編號18 成交價：3,302,500美元
A COLOUR AESTHETICS THAT MARRIED Impressionism, finds its roots in Kanō school and
EAST WITH WEST Tosa school. During the Meiji Period, Ukiyo-e made
waves in Europe and quickly found a cult following,
Cannes (Lot 2510) was painted sometime between the reason for its popularity being that Impressionism
1961 and 1963 as Umehara's signature piece during shared Ukiyo-e's artistic point-of-view and spirit, and it
the 1960s. To attain his vision of 'signature Japanese contributed to the reform movement within Impressionist
oil paintings,' Umehara unleashed colours from oil-on- art practise. Paul Cézanne, Oscar-Claude Monet,
canvas custom by using gold and platinum in Cannes - an Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh were all
approach never attempted before by Western artists1. strongly impacted by this genre. Ukiyo-e emphasises
Having grown up in a textile dyeing and finishing plant heightened colour contrasts and brilliance, snubbed
in Kyoto, Umehara was no stranger to a kaleidoscopic supplemental execution of shadows and over-blending,
range of sophisticated patterns and bright colours. thus inspiring many Impressionist artists. What made
Later, having been indoctrinated with artistic traditions the revolutionary, bold palette in Cannes so noteworthy
and techniques of Kanō school (15th to 19th century) in is Umehara's courage to revolutionise art conventions:
Japanese paintings, Umehara sought to blend Western he did not allow multivariate palette implementation
art practices with Oriental colour rendering in his in traditional Japanese art to limit him, nor did he
creations. To acknowledge the culture of the samurais for blindly pursue the strident colour contrasts in Fauvist
their strength and imposing presence, and the regency customs. Rather, Umehara pioneered a brand-new
of the Shogunate, Kanō artists of that time favoured painting style that was never attempted before.
the gold leaf background for their paintings on large
folding screens (fig. 1); they also removed the rooftop In Cannes, the lower half of the canvas is consumed
and tilt the background using the aerial perspective with large swaths of gold, to capture the way the clouds
to illustrate the vast landscape and its grandeur. and palm trees luxuriate in the glorious radiance of the
setting sun. The centre of the canvas is defined by strong
Ukiyo-e, an art genre that left a strong influence on
76 THE PIONEERS 先 鋒 薈 萃
