Page 88 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong

reflected that sentiment as Umehara returned to Japan
following nearly 50 years abroad of self studies and
artistic soul-searching, to let loose his expressive,
effervescent and sky-is-the-limit approach. The clouds
and palm trees, which take up nearly two-thirds of
the canvas, are delivered with a few crisp outlines of
curves and circles, putting the viewer in touch with the
ocean breeze that sets the cloud adrift and the trees
swaying. The display is reminiscent of Red and White
Plum Blossoms (fig. 2) by Ogata Kōrin (17th to 18th
century), in which the artist illustrates the mark of the
traveling brook with silver threads in curvy, balanced
Fig. 2 Ogata Kōrin, Red and White Plum Blossoms, Edo period, 18th century, pair of two-fold screens,
colour and gold leaf on paper, National Treasure (MOA Museum in Atami, Japan)
圖2 尾形光琳《紅白梅花》江戶時代(18世紀) 屏風, 日本MOA美術館
independence from Renoir and Cézanne's styles. The
innovative Japanese art presentation and concepts in
the creation of Cannes were an uncharted territory, never
attempted before by any art forerunners nor Western
painters. For Umehara, he was completely in his element
as he unleashed his creativity at-will. Cannes was heavily the landscape simultaneously through a multi-point
impastoed, not a crack nor fissure to be found on the
surface, juxtaposing every silhouette and outline before
the viewer, effecting an unusual planar structure. The
artist applied a twisted, deformed, and circumgyrated
brushstroke to achieve one lump after another on the
composition to actualise richly-textured circles and
halos. In other words, even though the impastoed surface
was planar, the viewer could sense the solidness of
those dimentionalised areas.3 This planar approach is
different from the technique applied by Camille Pissarro
to Le Boulevard Montmartre (fig. 3), where trees in the
foreground, buildings, pedestrians were painted in a
78 THE PIONEERS 先 鋒 薈 萃
lines to simulate the movement and rhythm of flowing
water. In Cannes, Umehara returns to the roots of
Japanese culture following his explorative journey
into avant-garde art, to form richly symbolic emblems
with 'circles': in so doing, the panorama celebrates the
grace and simplicity of Oriental aestheticism, instead
of jolting the spatial structure with strident colours.
THE UNIQUE PLANAR ARCHITECTURE
A daring break from art customs, Umehara opted for
a bright red background when he painted Golden
Necklace in 1913; this piece exemplified the artist's
dark-to-light, gradational spectra to produce depths and
dimensions. It also sets Umehara apart from Picasso,
whose La Baie de Cannes (fig. 4), created in 1958, is
characterised by Cubist's techniques that transform
objects into geometric shapes, illustrating objects and
perspective. The composition of Cannes parallels more
with that of traditional Chinese ink paintings, typified
by stacks of elements: the display is dissected into
three areas. The clouds in the skies and the trees at
the bottom dominate the composition; the figures and
objects are juxtaposed over one another, stripped of
the impression of distances or sizes to effectuate a
majestic vista. The foreground and the background
complement - and contrast with - each other. Ukiyo-e
bases its compositional practice on Chinese landscape
paintings, and diversifies it accordingly. It forewent
the custom 'target perspective' in Western art, and