PRIMITIVE UKIYO-E FROM THE JAMES A. MICHENER COLLECTION IN THE HONOLULUACADEMY OF ARTS by Howard A. Link; Juzo Suzuki; Roger S. KeyesReview by: Nancy S. AllenARLIS/NA Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 3 (MAY 1981), pp. 129-130Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27946531 .

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ARLIS/NA Newsletter, May 1981 129

nature studies. The literature is explained in terms of its creators and its consumers, giving a social and cultural background to the

study of Hokusai's art itself. The inclusion of shunga or erotic books and craftsmen's books is

particularly unusual. Until the 1970's, erotic Japanese prints were avoided in most scholarly sources and presented out of context in

only rather seamy-sided literature, Hillier maintains that the erotic illustrations must be included in any serious study of Hokusai's

work and be viewed in terms of early nineteenth-century Japanese social values, not with the biased appraisal of the post-Victorian

West. The craftsmen's books provide another side of Hokusai, who as a successful illustrator still created pattern books of decoration for combs, kimonos, or pipe bowls. Nothing better explains the lack of boundary between craftsman and artist in Japan than

Hillier's inclusion of these seldom-published works. Not since James Michener's 1959 The Hokusai Sketchbooks has

any publication focused on Hokusai's book illustration, and Michener's book covers only one of the over 270 books in Hillier's

study, Hokusai's Manga or sketchbooks. With such different

purposes and coverage these sources complement one another. More recently, David Chibbett's The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration has provided the most comprehensive and

scholarly study in the West of illustrated books, but summary coverage of Hokusai's books in no way obviates the need for Hillier's book. One must hope that the latter's price will not

prohibit its purchase for public and undergraduate libraries in addition to the graduate libraries which should most definitely acquire The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration.

Nancy S. Allen, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Additional recent sources on Japanese book illustration:

Sorimachi, Shigeo. Catalogue of Japanese Illustrated Books and

Manuscripts in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public

Library. Tokyo, The K?bunso, 1978. Inventory of 625 illustrated books and manuscripts dating between the eight and early 20th

century.

Sorimachi, Shigeo. Japanese Illustrated Books and Manuscripts in

the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland. Tokyo, The Kobunso, 1979. Inventory of 209 handscrolls and illustrated books dating

from the 9th through 19th century.

THE GREAT BRONZE AGE OF CHINA: An Exhibition from the Peoples' Republic of China/edited by Wen Fong.?New York:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980.?386 p.: ill. (most col.).? ISBN 0-87099-226-0: $40.00. TREASURES FROM THE BRONZE AGE OF CHINA: An Exhibition from the Peoples' Republic of China.?New York:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. ?192 p.: ill. (most col.).? ISBN 0-87099-230-9: $9.95.

As the publications which accompany the exhibition, "The

Great Bronze Age of China," these two catalogs serve as a lavish introduction to an esoteric legacy. Each volume contains a catalog of the 105 objects selected for display by The Committee for the Preparation of Exhibitions of Archaeological Relics, People's

Republic of China, accompanied by spendid color photographs, introductory essays, and maps. For the purposes of this review, the

principal catalog will be discussed in detail, with the shorter one

mentioned more briefly at the end. The Chinese, consummate historians, also like to think of them

selves as a nation of archaeologists, and, if the recent series of

excavations carried out in China in the last decade or so are any indication, the epithet is well chosen. The objects selected for this

show, many recently excavated, serve as a prolegomenon to the art

products of China's early dynastic history, from the Shang dynasty ( 16th century- 14th century B.C. in the revised chronology) through the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). This period corresponds in

Western history roughly from the Babylonian kingdom to the decline of the Roman Empire.

The recent series of excavations has unearthed a wealth of

material from this period, and the exhibition offers a sample of new

vessel shapes, decorative programs, and regional variations. Full evaluation and rationalization of this most complex art history is

only beginning, both in China and the West, and conclusions cannot be drawn from such a small selection, but the exhibition

and the catalog do offer a fine beginning for the appreciation of

early Chinese history and the art forms it includes.

Aspects of the study of the exhibition materials are discussed in a series of essays in the catalog written by a group of principally American scholars and students of Chinese archaeology and his

tory. The Chinese viewpoint, however, is established in a summary

(p. 374-376) prepared by the Committee for the Preparation of Exhibitions of Archaelogical Relics. In the summary, the Commit tee presents its views on the exhibition material and takes issue

with specific points raised in the essays. Remarkably free of the rhetoric which usually plagues publications from the PRC, the

summary provides an interesting counterpoint to the prevailing views of the catalogs text.

The strength of the catalog, however, lies in its pictorial con tents. Every object receives a color plate, some half-page, many

full-page. These are enhanced with superb close-up views of details such as decorative motifs, sculptural detailing, and a most useful record of the surface quality of many of the bronzes. Smaller black-and-white illustrations with most of the catalog entries include rubbings of details and inscriptions on the vessels, and

rubbings of some of the jade pieces. Two frustrations with the catalog are the use of Pinyin, a fact of

life for most writing on China, but still an irritation for those used to the Wade-Giles system, and the bibliography. Though it con tains much of the recent Chinese source material and a most

helpful list of excavation site reports, it appears to be light on some

important contributions, particularly in the area of influence on and by Central Asia. Also missing are citations of historical Chi nese texts, though these are referred to in the essays. Although it can be argued that the most recent bibliography is the most rele vant, art history is an accretive discipline. It would also have been

interesting to have a checklist of the ancient sources the Chinese themselves are referring to. Both these complaints are relatively

minor, and there are extensive footnotes to fill in some of the

bibliographic lacunae.

There is little doubt that The Great Bronze Age of China will become a standard reference, and it is an imperative purchase for

any library with a serious commitment to Asian art and history. For those with smaller exchequers or less commitment, a high recommendation is given for the smaller catalog, Treasures from the Bronze Age of China which includes the color photographs, brief summaries derived from the longer essays, maps, and brief entries for each of the objects in the exhibition. At $9.95, this could be one of the best art book purchases of the year.

Kathy Haskins, Art Institute of Chicago

PRIMITIVE UKIYO-E FROM THE JAMES A. MICHENER COLLECTION IN THE HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS/ Howard A. Link; with the assistance of Juzo Suzuki and Roger S. Keyes.?Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1980.?322 p.: ill. (some col.).?ISBN 0-8248-0483-X: $55.00

This catalog of selected Japanese woodblock prints from the James Michener collection covers single leaf broadsheets and illus trated popular fiction from the 1660*s through 1760's which are

generally referred to as primitive prints. The entire book is

arranged by artist family, with a brief descriptions of the style and contributions of each, followed by illustrations and separate catalog entries for the prints ofthat artist, family or school. Entries include title, date, measurements and coloring, signature and seals,

publisher, condition, provenance, documentation, commentary, and attribution. Certain categories of information are particularly useful though they are often omitted in collection or exhibition

catalogs. They include: 1) the description of condition to help the student of prints gain a sense of connoisseurship, 2) suggested attributions based on comparisons between unsigned broadsheets and signed illustrated books, and 3) commentary which explains not only the identification of the scene but how the assignment was made. A thorough two-page glossary of Japanese terms and bibli

ography of Western and Japanese books updated to 1979 are

included, though no index is provided. Very little else has been written on the early period of Japanese

prints, and the 1971 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ukiyo-e: Prints and Paintings, the Primitive Period, ?680-1745 was a landmark. Another book by Howard Link, The Theatrical Prints of the Torii Masters: A Selection of Seventeenth and Eight eenth Century Ukiyo-e (Tokyo, Honolulu Academy of Arts and

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130 ARLIS/NA Newsletter, May 1981

Riccar Art Museum, 1977) deals with only one group of the

primitive period. This catalog covers the Torii masters represented in nine different collections including the Honolulu Academy of

Arts James Michener collection. The depth of coverage in the Torii

catalog and the breadth of coverage in the Michener catalog both

provide needed research in the largely undocumented area of early Japanese prints.

Dr. Link states in the preface to the Michener catalog that his

purpose is not to provide the definitive word on the early prints, but to spur future students to research the period. The goal is well met in this volume in which the documentation is aided by organi zation, format, and clear illustrations. The book also helps inform our appreciation of the power, grace, and sophistication of these

early prints so inappropriately named "primitive" by later collec tors. Highly recommended for collections which support graduate or undergraduate study of Asian art.

Nancy S. Allen, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

THE PROLIFIC CENTURY THE ART OF FRENCH GLASS 1860-1914/Janine Bloch Dermant; translated by Marian Marian Burleigh-Motley.?New York: Vend?me; Viking [dist.], 1980.?204 p.: ill. (most col.).? ISBN 0-86565-000-4: $45.00.

When Sanuel Bing opened his art shop at 22 rue de Provence in

Paris, he reflected his interest in the changing art of the last quarter of the 19th century by entitling his shop "L'Art Nouveau." The

phrase itself was not new, for it had appeared in the Revue Moderne in 1884, but it came to epitomize a movement which was

revolutionary in form, color, and intent. While art nouveau had its innovators in other countries (notably

L.C. Tiffany and Frederick Carder in the United States) the move ment is chiefly associated with France of the Belle Epoque. Janine Bloch-Dermant's The Art of French Glass 1860-1914, first pub lished in French in 1974, has gone through several editions. It is an excellent review of the minor and major figures of French glass and

design between the devastating wars of 1870 and 1914. In an excellent survey of the French scene after 1860, Mme.

Bloch-Dermant details the forces which created the unprecedented attempt in France to unite the beautiful and the useful. In many ways the very essence of Romanticism, Art Nouveau partook of influences both old and new: a search for originality; a flowering of

design motifs based on the flora and fauna of nature; the free spirit of humanism; a concern for the past, the exotic, and the unusual; the play of light which inspired Impressionism; and the spirit of Symbolism with its attempt to reach beyond materialism and nature. It was a style wonderfully suited to the fluidity and versatil

ity of glass as an artistic medium. The author details the techniques of this revival of artistic inspi

ration, its search for new forms, and then its culmination in the Ecole de Nancy. She gives brief but detailed accounts of Gall?, the fr?res Daum, and the fr?res M?ller, who represent the major figures of the movement, and also of their predecessors. Adequate attention is given as well to Henri Cros, Despret, and Decorche mont and the resurrection of pate de verre after a millenum and a half. The 300 illustrations, 118 of which are in full color, are a visual delight; a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and a brief

photo credit supplement the usefulness of the volume. Mme. Bloch Dermanf s study should prove most useful as a factual and picto rial reference work.

John H. Martin, The Corning Museum of Glass

THE GREAT BOOK OF FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM/Diane Kelder.? New York: Abbeville Press, 1980.?447p.: ill. (some col.).?$100.00. THE GREAT BOOK OF FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM/Horst Keller.?New York: Hudson Hills, 1980.?272 p.: ill. (most col.).?ISBN 0-933920-11-3: $50.00. THE OTHER NINETEENTH CENTURY: PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE IN THE COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH M. TANENBAUM/Organized and Edited by Louise d'Argencourt and Douglas Druick.?Ottawa: National Gallery of

Canada; Chicago: University of Chicago Press [dist.], 1978.?240 p.: ill. (some col.),?ISBN 0-88884-348-8: $29.95. THE REALIST TRADITION: FRENCH PAINTING AND

DRAWING 1830-1900/Gabriel P. Weisberg?Cleveland: Cleve

land Museum of Art; Bloomington: Indiana University Press

[dist.], 1980.?346 p.: ill. (some col.).?ISBN 0-910386-60-9:

$50.00. Faced with prices only sheikhs and mega-museums can afford,

and with a surfeit of scholarship in the field, many art-dealers, collectors, publishers, and historians are beginning to turn their attention away from the celebrities of French nineteenth-century art to the formerly neglected and even maligned academicians and

realists. This is not to announce, however, that the Impressionists are at all feeling the heat, as two large and colorful new publica tions will attest. The positive result of the now-regular exhibitions and reproductions of works by formerly forgotten leading acade micians like Bouguereau and Meissonier and realists like Rosa Bonheur is a better understanding of the rich diversity of French art in the nineteenth century and its real depth of talent and

perception. This trend also provides us with a better understanding of the context from which the Romantics and the Impressionists emerged.

An important contribution in both senses of a better under

standing is the catalog to the exhibition The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing, 1830-1900, by Gabriel P. Weisberg. In an illuminating introduction, he writes that "Realism...was

simply a name applied to those who sought to revitalize the centuries-old artistic tradition of accurate, truthful recording of the world and to give this tradition contemporary relevance" (p. 1).

This was more revolutionary than it might sound: pictures of rural poverty and urban social calamities had no place in the academic hierarchy where history paintings and allegories were

given top billing, and where still-lifes were counted barely accepta ble. Assembled from distinguished public and private collections, the exhibition and catalog are nevertheless organized into the

traditional academic categories of genre, portraiture, still-life, and

landscape. Most of the paintings reflect in some degree, however, the changing attitudes of contemporary observers to the changing social conditions of the nineteenth century.

The Other Nineteenth Century, with a text by Louise d'Argen court and Douglas Druick, both curators at the National Gallery of Canada, is less sharply focused than The Realist Tradition,

including as it does some examples by English painters and French

sculptors. It nevertheless also concentrates on the formerly neg lected and occasionally maligned academicians.

Particularly interesting is the story of how the Tanenbaums

began their collection. At first thinking to buy art to decorate their

home, by 1970 the Tanenbaums were deep into art magazines like

Apollo and Connoisseur and scholarly monographs and were

consulting with dealers. Coming into the market at an ideal time for the purchase of severely undervalued nineteenth-century aca

demic works, they were able to put together a substantial collection for a relatively insignificant amount of money. Still collecting, the Tanenbaums have generously donated a large portion of their

holdings to Canada's National Gallery. Far from being dislodged from their pride of place, the Impres

sionists also still enjoy a lively publishing career. Two new books,

unfortunately sharing the same title?The Great Book of French

Impressionism?are of interest, although neither book breaks any new ground. The Hudson Hills book is cheaper, more portable, and has a slightly different Germanic interpretation. The treatment of its illustrations is uneven?some are cropped and some are bled into the gutter. Nevertheless, the quality of the reproductions is

high. The Abbeville Press book is twice as expensive and much bulkier. Its text is encyclopedic, although no new light is cast upon the subject. Additionally, because of its weight, the binding may

pull away from the pages with careless handling. If you must choose between the two, and if you've the money, choose the Kelder book.

Susan E. Holmer, Peninsula Library System (Calif.)

GENERAL REVIEWS INTRODUCTION TO CATALOGING AND CLASSIFICATI

ON / Bohdan S. Wynar with the assistance of Arlene Taylor Dowell and Jeanne Osborn.?6th ed.?Littleton: Libraries Unlimited, 1980.?676 p.: ill.?(Library Science Text Series).?ISBN 0

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