The Japan Society is currently hosting “Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obsession.” Yasumasa Morimura is a Japanese artist, who provides commentary onvarious social themes and issue through his art. Morimura’s art mainly consists of reinventions of past artworks with a small twist; he uses his own face as the subject in the pictures. He turns glorious historic artwork into self-portraits. These portraits include themes of dissonance, race, gender, and the influence of Western Culture. The themes of dissonance, gender identity, and Western Culture are seen in his painting, Une Moderne Olympia, 2018.
Une Moderne Olympia is a restaging of Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863). In Olympia, a young prostitute is lying in bed while her maid is attending to her. In Morimura’s version, he plays the role of both, the prostitute and the maid. The prostitute seems to be a younger version of Morimura, while the maid is an older version with a beard. There are several small details Morimura changed as explained by Alexxa Gotthardt in her article titled, “Why Yasumasa Morimura Places Himself in Art History’s Most Famous Scenes.” She explains that instead of lying on European-style fabric, he lies on a kimono. Also, instead of the cat Manet includes, he includes a maneki-neko. This is a traditional Japanese symbol of luck and financial success.
In, Une Moderne Olympia, Morimura is addressing the dissonance, or absence of understanding, between the Western Society and Japanese Society. This is especially evident in the cat because Morimura uses a symbol instead of a real animal. This comments on the lack of understanding Western Society has about Japanese culture. This painting also addresses stereotypes that the Western “world” associates with Japan. The man in the painting player the part that was played by the maid seems angry and he is wearing a top hat that resembles Western culture. The had symbolizes that this character represents the West. The woman in the painting, who is lying down, is wearing tradition Japanese headwear. Gotthardt explains that the idea of the young prostitute in the painting being Japanese addresses the stereotype that Westerners believe that Japan is vulnerable and can be taken advantage of. The idea of employing stereotypes and commenting on stereotypes in art tells us that the artist is socially involved and active.
Yasumasa Morimura’s work is different. It is the type of art that may make people feel uncomfortable and awkward. I was not able to go the gallery and see the film associated with “Ego Obsession,” but I found the portraits online enjoyable and intriguing. This artist uses history to explain the issues associated with history. The United States used its overwhelming power to change Japanese culture in the post-World War II era. This is the brilliance of Morimura; he uses this history and then addresses the issues with the situation by using a completely different historic painting. Morimura than makes the painting his own by putting his face on the subjects. This practice may be considered controversial, but I believe it echoes a genius idea.
Source: Gotthardt, Alexxa. “Why Yasumasa Morimura Places Himself in Art History’s Most Famous Scenes.” JapaneseArtist Yasumasa Morimura’sMany Faces, Artsy, 19 Oct. 2018, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-yasumasa-morimura-places-art-historys-famous-scenes/amp.
“Yasumasa Morimura: Une Moderne Olympia”
“Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863)”
