Page 87 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong

Fig. 1 Kano School (1615–1868), Amusements at Higashiyama in Kyoto, Painted ca. 1620s

@ Purchase, 2013 Benefit Fund and Mary and James G. Wallach Foundation Gift, 2014
圖1 狩野派 (1615–1868) 《東山遊樂圖》 設色 雲母 金箔 紙本 約1620年作

silvers to portray the reflective light on the buildings, Western artistic quintessence. Nonetheless, the artist
manifesting the decorative and resplendent magnitude had asserted that he did not wish to be categorised, nor
that is distinctively Japanese. This execution is rooted confined by a distinct aesthetic lexicon. He opposed
in traditional Japanese colour aesthetic. The golds and to using Western criteria for judging the quality of
silvers brighten gradational variations in contrastive art, stating that 'the expression of the spiritual and
spectrum when either the angle or the light is shifted; the corporeal knew no distinctions. The fusion of the
meanwhile, they can also capture the nature of light, two is the Holy Grail of life.' 2 Here, 'the spiritual' is
allowing colours to clash and roil to effect strong defined by the artist's individual perception and insight,
visuals. An unsettling optical discordance and instability whilst 'the corporeal' refers to the motif of the creation;
occurs in the display to effect an aesthetic resembling this suggests that artists should portray the objects
'imperfection' in 'Wabi-sabi.' Umehara was the only according to their perception; and Cannes precisely
artist found in both East and West with this unique
palette restructuring insight, and it laid a foundation
for giving oil paintings the Japanese flair. Furthermore,
other than gold mines, gold was not a colour found in
the many wonderments of nature. This palette choice
had never been adopted by Western oil painters; that
said, gold represents a strong symbolism in Japan. It is
no wonder that the walls of several iconic temples in
Japan are gilded. The facade of the famed Kinkaku-ji,
a historic monument, is coated and gilded with gold-
leaf. Spiritually, gold is considered sacred to devout
Buddhists in Japan, because it signifies the essence of
the Buddhism dictum, and a transcendental state-of-
mind. Umehara sought to honour and heighten Japanese
influence in his oil paintings. Besides basing his artistic
techniques on his Japanese roots, he also attempted to
blend traditional Japanese culture and philosophies into
his creations, thus trailblazing a Japonism oil practice
seen in neither Western nor Eastern art conventions.

CIRCLES' IN BRUSHWORK AND SYMBOLIST
LINES

Umehara's studies in France and frequent trips
throughout Europe exposed him to a wide gamut
of Western art and cultures. Georges Rouault of
Expressionism, Henri Matisse of Fauvism, and frescoes
of Pompeii, for instance, helped Umehara assimilate

Lot 2510 Detail 局部

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