Bachelor Japanists: Japanese Aesthetics and Western Masculinities (Modernist Latitudes)

Challenging clichés of Japanism as a feminine taste, __Bachelor Japanists__ argues that Japanese aesthetics were central to contests over the meanings of masculinity in the West. Christopher Reed draws attention to the queerness of Japanist communities of writers, collectors, curators, and artists in the tumultuous century between the 1860s and the 1960s.Reed combines extensive archival research; analysis of art, architecture, and literature; the insights of queer theory; and an appreciation of irony to explore the East-West encounter through three revealing artistic milieus: the Goncourt brothers and other __japonistes__ of late-nineteenth-century Paris; collectors and curators in turn-of-the-century Boston; and the mid-twentieth-century circles of artists associated with Seattle’s Mark Tobey. The result is a groundbreaking integration of well-known and forgotten episodes and personalities that illuminates how Japanese aesthetics were used to challenge Western gender conventions. These disruptive effects are sustained in Reed’s analysis, which undermines conventional scholarly investments in the heroism of avant-garde accomplishment and ideals of cultural authenticity. CONTENTS A Note on Names and Terms Acknowledgments Introduction Bachelor Japanists Queer and Away: Three Case Studies Japanism and/as Modernism Japan as Origin and Opposite Alternative Identities Japan and Orientalism Visuality and Japanism Sight and Subversion 1. Originating Japanism: Fin-de-Siècle Paris Modernism and Japonisme The First Japoniste(s) The First Fictions of Japonisme Alternative Origins, Other Fictions Japonaises and Japonistes: Women in the Spaces of Japonisme Bachelor Japoniste Quarters, Part 1: The House-Museum of Henri Cernuschi Bachelor Japoniste Quarters, Part 2: The Maison des Goncourt The Afterlife of the Maison des Goncourt Bachelor Japoniste Quarters, Part 3: Hugues Krafft’s Midori-no-sato A Coda About Japonisme’s Beginnings 2. Bachelor Brahmins: Turn-of-the-Century Boston Japanism in the Athens of America Imagined Aristocracies and the Politics of Taste Implications for Institutions: Art History and Museums Fictions Enabling and Exclusive Fictions of Japanism and Gender Japanism and/as Religion The Private Space of Brahmin Japanism: W. S. Bigelow’s Tuckanuck The Public Space of Brahmin Japanism, Part 1: The First Museum of Fine Arts The Public Space of Brahmin Japanism, Part 2: The Second Museum of Fine Arts Bachelor Japan A Japanism of Her Own: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s House Museum Last Words: Japanism Re-viewed 3. Sublimation and Eccentricity in the Art of Mark Tobey: Seattle at Midcentury Spectacles of Libertad Spirituality and/as Sublimation Engaging the East: Seattle and Devon Approaching the East with Bernard Leach Counter Encounters: Tobey and Leach in China and Japan Invoking the East: “White Writing” Reorienting Seattle with Morris Graves and John Cage A Marketplace of Ideas: Globalism and Regionalism in the “Northwest School” The Avant-Garde and Its Exclusions Japanese-American: Aesthetics of Affiliation in the Postwar Era Disorienting Eccentricity: Japanism and/as the New Normal Conclusion: On the End of Japanism Notes Bibliography Index Challenging clichés of Japanism as a feminine taste, Bachelor Japanists argues that Japanese aesthetics were central to contests over the meanings of masculinity in the West. Christopher Reed draws attention to the queerness of Japanist communities of writers, collectors, curators, and artists in the tumultuous century between the 1860s and the 1960s. Reed combines extensive archival research; analysis of art, architecture, and literature; the insights of queer theory; and an appreciation of irony to explore the East-West encounter through three revealing artistic milieus: the Goncourt brothers and other japonistes of late-nineteenth-century Paris; collectors and curators in turn-of-the-century Boston; and the mid-twentieth-century circles of artists associated with Seattle's Mark Tobey. The result is a groundbreaking integration of well-known and forgotten episodes and personalities that illuminates how Japanese aesthetics were used to challenge Western gender conventions. These disruptive effects are sustained in Reed's analysis, which undermines conventional scholarly investments in the heroism of avant-garde accomplishment and ideals of cultural authenticity. --Publisher description Challenging cliches of Japanism as a feminine taste, Bachelor Japanists argues that Japanese aesthetics were central to contests over the meanings of masculinity in the West. Christopher Reed draws attention to the queerness of Japanist communities of writers, collectors, curators, and artists between the 1860s and the 1960s. Originating Japanism: Fin-de-siecle Paris -- Bachelor Brahmins: Turn-of-the-century Boston -- Sublimation And Eccentricity In The Art Of Mark Tobey: Seattle At Midcentury -- On The End Of Japanism. Christopher Reed. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.