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photo St Tyl |
Once
again the Manufacture Prelle showroom offers an enlightening look into its
archives with a thematic exhibition. Twice a year,
the venerable Lyon silk weaver opens its Paris showroom
at the place
des Victoires,
making marvels of textile culture come to life by placing them in
their historic and aesthetic context for an appreciative audience.
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photo manufacture Prelle |
The atmosphere is hushed, heels click on the parquet that gives an occasional creak. This rarefied world of shimmering, elegant fabric is for a time inhabited by dragons, phoenixes, butterflies and cranes who roam the material's silken threads.These very creatures first came over with Japan's trade openings to the western world in the 1850s, then multiplied and were fertile in the imaginations of textile designers until the 1930s. On view are a sampling of original Japanese fabrics as well as the Prelle fabrics they inspired during the period. We might say that the woven archival documents here establish the paternity of a long line of descendants at Prelle. And what's more, the Japonisme of the mid-century was almost a second genesis for the world of arts in the West.
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photo St Tyl |
The current showing
juxtaposes richly colored silk fabrics with
Baccarat crystal and silver from Christofle in order to better
communicate the rage for Japanese style in the decorative arts of
the epoch. Imposing period furniture, provided by galerie Chadelaud and
galerie Marc Maison, serves to vary the sensuous surfaces and complete the
picture.
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photo manufacture Prelle |
It
was the discovery of a collection of over 150 katagami,
or Japanese stencils in the archives that gave impetus for the exhibit.
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photo St Tyl |
These
katagami, bought by Eugène Prelle in the 1860s, were studied for elements of flora and fauna and geomtric shapes then used to inspire the manufacture's
own woven silk designs. Certain designs were created by designer Eugène Prelle himself.
Throughout the exhibition we can admire the framed katagami as instructive
in our understanding of the derived fabrics and as beautiful objects in their
own right.
The second half of the 19th
century fell under the powerful spell of Japan. Even
the Goncourt brothers succumbed; these collectors and supreme literary powers of the 19th century often expressed their fervent and exclusive devotion to the 18th
century in matters of art and decoration and declared that they disliked any styles outside of their siècle de joli be it Greek, Medieval, Renaissance ---
with one exception, the art of
Japan.
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Gustave Léonard de Jonghe L'admiratrice du Japon c. 1865 source |
Japan's
prints and decorative objects were to change the face of Western arts.
At first, there was a rush to create rich and exotic interiors using imported
screens, ceramics, and other art objects that were destined for
boudoirs
and fumoirs. All the shops for the home had at least a Japanese corner for furnishings and bric à brac and there was a proliferation of the style in French-made furnishings and objects.
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George Hendrik Breitner, Girl in Red Kimono, 1893–95
source |
The owners of these objects found it fitting to wrap up in a kimono to be in harmony with their surroundings. The gradual freeing up of forms and motifs is evident in these paintings whose characters pass from observers to participants to integral parts of the whole.
Little by little, less passively, more subtly and profoundly, artists and artisans integrated not just motifs but Japanese design concepts, with their penchants for asymmetry, important negative space, and bold, flat pattern and contrasting colors.
The world of textile design, despite the technical constraints of repeats developed
in a similar spirit. The stage was set for Art Nouveau, Art Deco and beyond. These concepts would influence a great part of modern art whether fine or decorative.
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image source: BnF |
Highly
instrumental in spreading the Japanese aesthetic was Siegfried Bing
and his journal, Le Japon Artistique, published
from 1888-1892. Naturally,
Eugène Prelle was in
possession of the journal.
Said Bing in the introduction of the
first issue,
Le seul patronage auquel
cet ouvrage désire se soustraire est celui de la soi-disant 'mode' des choses
du Japon, qui s'est un moment abattue sur nos salons. Elle n'a rien de commun,
en effet, cette mode de clinquant, avec un art délicat, tantôt aristocratique
et tantôt populaire, mais dont toujours la sobriété et la distinction
constituent la loi fondamentale. Loin d'être soumis aux caprices d'un
engouement frivole, cet art est désormais lié au notre d'une façon impérissable.
C'est une goutte de sang qui est venu se mêler à notre sang et qu'aucun pouvoir
du monde ne pourra plus en éliminer.
The only patronage which this publication
wants to avoid is the so-called 'fashion' for things from Japan which has recently
struck our sitting rooms. This garish fashion shares nothing, in fact, with a delicate
art; it is sometimes aristocratic, sometimes common, but its fundamental law is
always simplicity and distinction. Far from being subject to the whims of a
frivolous fad, this art is permanently bound together with ours. It is a
drop of blood now mingled with our own, which no power on earth will be able to extract.
The exhibit is on view until the 29th of March.