Japonisme–Art Between East and West, Part 3: Architecture with Dr. Gavin Campbell

Japanese art exploded on the European art scene in the decades after 1850, sparking a profoundly creative movement called Japonisme. But those ideas didn’t stay in Europe. Western art transformed Japanese art in turn. Japonisme, then, was a long transnational conversation about modern life and the meaning of art. Join Gavin Campbell for a five-part course to explore the artistic connections between East and West.

When Japan opened for trade in the 1850s, artists from London to Prague suddenly encountered artists who saw the world in very different ways. This discovery transformed some of the most important European artists of the 19th century, from Van Gogh and Degas to Cassat and Monet. But Japanese art was so astonishing that its influences radiated out to affect design, architecture, and fashion, too. Yet we often hear very little about the Japanese art world that created these shock waves, or how western interpretations then found their way back to Japan.

This multi-part lecture series will examine Japonisme as a long transnational conversation between two arts cultures. Together we will explore the astonishing artistic creativity of men and women working at the edge of their cultures, feeling their way into the modern world.

Part 3:  Architecture

Lecture three focuses on architecture. The mutual discovery of new style vocabularies gave architects in the west and Japan an opportunity to rethink how they designed everything from government buildings to private homes.