Reproductions
ADD EXPLANATION ABOUT ART POSTCARDS HOW ARTISTS COULD EXCHANGE THEM
ADD LINKS TO RELEVANT PAGES on the library and its collection
In his book for aspiring oil painters, Yamamoto Kanae provided the following advice:
Writing in 1919, Yamamoto Kanae's words reveal the importance of perusing photographic reproductions at a time when access to original works was limited.Another method to study painting is to see as many paintings as possible. I suggest going to exhibitions or, if one has an invitation, visiting ateliers of acquainted painters or those who live in the neighborhood. Above all, to work in oil painting, one has to see a lot of pictures by noted western artists. However, unless one travels to the West, it is impossible to see the original artworks. For this reason I advise to collect many photographic reproductions of famous works. (Abura no egakikata, 38)
Similarly, an observer writing for the Taiwan nichinichi shinpō in November 1930 advised artists in the tōyōga division of the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition to study old paintings in private collections and by using the library. He pointed out that the Taipei library had the full run of the prestigious journal Kokka (Flowers of the Nation), twenty-volume set of Shinbi taikan (Selected Relics of Japanese Art), and many other books with reproductions (gashū) of works from various painting schools (Hekiteishujin, "Taiten no ato ni" Taiwan nichinichi shinpō, 11 November 1930). Both Kokka and Shinbi taikan featured large size reproductions in highest print quality.
Thus, looking at reproductions became an indispensable part of artistic education.
INTEGRATE THIS
Art postcards were another popular resource for aspiring artists, as they reproduced artworks in mass print (ADD EXAMPLE from Chen Chenbos collection?). Sold at major art exhibitions, they enjoyed great popularity throughout the 1920s and 1930s with exhibition visitors and artists. In contrast to primarily black and white reproductions in art journals, the majority of art postcards in Japan at the time were printed in color, which greatly contributed to their appeal. Art postcards turned artworks into small, uniform, inexpensive, yet visually pleasant collectibles. They were easily transportable and allowed anyone to assemble a small “art collection.”
More importantly, art postcards filled an important function at the time when no permanent museum for modern art existed in Tokyo. Painter and exhibition juror Okada Saburōsuke (1869-1939) found art exhibitions to be "temporary just like music" and pointed out that only art postcards helped one later to recall the artworks seen in an exhibition (“Jōsetsu bijutsukan no mondai,” Atorie 10, no. 1 (1933): 6.).
Many artists collected art postcards and made scrapbooks with reproductions of artworks. Today, some of the most well known surviving examples are the collections of a Korean watercolor and oil artists Yi Insŏng (1912-1950) and two Taiwanese-Chinese oil painters, Chen Chengbo (1895-1947) and Chen Zhiqi (1906-1931).
IF I CAN, ADD EXAMPLE FROM Yi Insong's collection, art postcard of Liao Jichun's painting