Model works
Sketching from nature and studying acclaimed works of the past and present constituted the two key methods of acquiring painting skills for both nihonga and seiyōga painters in early twentieth-century Japan (Compare: Fujishima Takeji, Geijutsu no esupuri, (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2004), 221-22). Exhibition jurors, established artists, and authors of advice books emphasized that aspiring artists should study masterpieces through copying. At the same time, they suggested that each artists should aim to develop their own original expression.
Looking at original paintings and experiencing their size, color, and texture required access to private collections or visiting temporary art exhibitions. The Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Japan Art Association (Nihon bijutsu kyōkai) frequently included “models” (sankōhin, literally "objects for reference") in their exhibitions for study purposes. Furthermore, with the launch of the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition in 1907 in Tokyo, artists in Japan began demanding establishment of a modern art museum. By canonizing recent art, this museum would also function as a source of models.
Japanese settler-artists in Taiwan, colonial bureaucrats, and artists in the metropole believed that representative examples of modern Japanese art could guide local artists and educate the art public. Therefore, the first Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition was accompanied by a special exhibition of XXX nihonga and oil paintings on loan from Tokyo as models (The Korea Fine Arts Exhibition also featured Japanese modern art as models).
Painter, art teacher, and long-term resident of Taiwan, Ishikawa Kin’ichirō (1871-1945), described his emotional experience of viewing these works at the first official salon in Taiwan:
Some models, such as Araki Jippo’s painting (CAN I GET A REPRODUCTION?), left such a lasting impression that critics recalled it years later in their reviews (ADD REF). The technical virtuosity of this most renowned bird-and-flower artist at the salon must have appealed to contemporary viewers.The models displayed are an oasis of art for art connoisseurs and the study of [art]. Having come in contact with these fine works, I feel that art by great masters draws you in without effort, just like that, quietly, like the gentle flow of water. It feels like being completely embraced by serenity (ADD REF).
The organizers abandoned the practice of organizing a special display in the subsequent Taipei salons,, perhaps due to issues of funding. Instead, they encouraged the invited jurors from Japan to bring their own works for the purpose of displaying them as models. The Japanese language press often advertised in advance the subject matter and size of the jurors’ works and, upon the exhibition’s opening, reproduced and reviewed them in detail (CAN I GET A REPRODUCTION?). Usually, the jurors would bring one or two works.
Japanese settler-artists expected much from the jurors’ works. They repeatedly stated how difficult it was to see good paintings on the island and requested that jurors visiting from Japan bring their most representative and stimulating works with them. In his touching review of Umehara Ryūzaburō’s Sakurajima, on view at the Taipei salon in 1935, painter Tateishi Tetsuomi (1905-1980) recalled the sadness he had felt not being able to see the acclaimed work of his former teacher when it was first displayed in Tokyo at the Kokuga exhibition and the joy of finally having the opportunity to view the painting in person in Taipei (ADD REF). Even though, in total, only a few model works from Japan were displayed at the Taipei salon, Japanese settler-artists attached great importance to them.
Japanese settler-artists and critics in Taiwan often complained about the jurors' model works in the press. The most often repeated criticism was that the work was small, not representative of the artist’s oeuvre, lacking educational merits, or that it could guide only beginners and would leave true art lovers dissatisfied. By and large, the artists did not complain about the specific styles or subject matter represented in the jurors’ works. They just desired to see masterpieces rather than average paintings that they juror in question happened to have had on hand in his atelier as he was embarking on his trip to Taiwan (All jurors at the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition invited from Japan were male). Some suspected that the jurors did not take the Taiwanese art world seriously.
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