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| Hokusai's clouds over Monet's pond 2020 pigments and glue on silk |
Hiramatsu came to exhibit in a Parisian gallery in 1994, when he saw Monet's immersive water lily paintings in the Orangerie Museum. It was a revelation for him. He had until then only seen them in reproduction. The water lilies were Monet's last testament - his gift to the French people at the end of World War 1. The exhibition includes one large square painting of water lilies by Monet. It was quite a radical work in its time, presenting an all-over view with little perspective:
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| Monet: Nymphéas avec rameaux de saule (Water lilies with willow branches) 1916-1919 |
Monet fuses Impressionism with Japanese art. He never actually visited Japan, but like most painters in the late 19th century was strongly influenced by the Japanese prints flooding over to the west. Monet's house at Giverny is full of his collection of prints by Hokusai, Utamaro, Hiroshige and others. Following in Monet's footsteps, Hiramatsu gives us his own personal version of the lily pond:
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| Concierto of waterlilies and maples 2020 |
Using glue, pigments and gold leaf, Hiramatsu follows the principles of "Nihonga"- traditional Japanese painting, painted on the flat. Nihonga ("nihon" meaning Japanese and "ga" meaning painting) combines organic matter with mineral pigments such as powdered seashells and glue on silk, paper, hemp canvas or wood. Most of the 14 screens here are painted on paper. Photos of Hiramatsu's studio show his paint pots:
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| Photo by Ou Tanka: Hiramatsu Reiji in his studio January 2010 |
The 83-year old artist likes to say that he "dreams ceaselessly of Giverny". He has often returned to wander through Monet's garden and sketch. Born in Tokyo in 1941, he learned his skill in the municipal school in Nagoya, influenced by famous Nihonga artist Kawabata Ryūshi (1855-1966). Hiramatsu's first name was Kunio; he adopted Reiji in his 30s as his artistic name. He favours bright colours:
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| Giverny, water mirror of the pond 2020 |
Like Monet, he uses different forms, for example the circular tondo. Here he echoes Monet's poplar trees series of 1891:
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| Poplars 2011 Pigments and glue on paper |
The most simple of the screens on show has a plain background with a tondo shape in the centre, where fronds of the weeping willow trees frame the lilies and the reflected blue sky:
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| At the meeting of eternal beauties- think of the pond 2020 pigments and glue on paper |
One of the more abstract screens depicts the lily pond in autumnal shades:
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| Giverny, reflection on the pond, autumn 2020 |
As a detail of this screen shows, its surface shimmers:
Along with Japanese maples, peonies and chrysanthemums, Monet used bamboos in his water garden. Bamboos in Asia are symbols of rectitude and purity. Hiramatsu interprets Monet's bamboos and water lilies on another of his screens:
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| Giverny, Forest of bamboos over the pond 2020 pigments, metallic leaf and glue on paper |
Hiramatsu captures the sunlight on the lily pond with his gold leaf and uses Indian ink to trace the foliage:
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| Brilliant plants, reflections 2020 |
The Giverny museum now owns a substantial body of Hiramatsu's creations - 75 works, including 32 drawings, enriched by the 14 recent screens displayed here. Hiramatsu and his wife Hiroko even created their own Monet-style lily pond in their garden at Karuizawa in the 'Japanese alps' near Tokyo. This series of screens is Hiramatsu's ultimate homage to Monet.
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When Monet was asked by art critic Roger Marx in 1909 how he saw himself in the world of art, he replied:
"compare me to the old Japanese artists: the refinement of their taste has always appealed to me and I approve of the suggestions of their aesthetic which evokes presence through shadow, the whole through the fragment"
Monet fully embraced 'japonisme'. It is interesting to see that a superbly accomplished contemporary Japanese artist -Hiramatsu- has fully embraced Monet.
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| Concierto of water lilies and cherry trees 2020 |
The exhibition closes with a work of traditional Western art- a seascape at sunset by Johan Barthold Jongkind. The Giverny Museum is saving up to acquire this richly-coloured oil painting. Monet claimed that the 19th century Dutch painter had "trained his eye":
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| Johan Barthold Jongkind: L'Escaut près d'Anvers (The river Escaut near Antwerp) 1866 |
Superb! What an inspiration. To riff off the master, as a master.
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