East meets West meets East meets West

JAPORNISM. Erotic Contemporientalism, re-interpreting traditional
Japanese Ukiyo-e and Shunga.

Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished between the 17th
and 19th centuries, whilst Shunga is Japanese for Erotic Art. Ukiyo-e
was central to forming the West’s perception of Japanese art in the
late 19th century‚ especially the landscapes of Hirosage and Hokusai.
From the 1870s Japonisme, [a term coined by French art critic
Phillippe Burty], became a prominent trend and had a strong influence
on the early Impressionists such as Degas, Manet, and Monet, as well
as Post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh. Japanisme also morphed into
two other aesthetics, Art Nouveau inspiring artists such as
Toulouse-Lautrec and Art Deco.

With Japornism, Reynolds and Rose take it somewhere else entirely,
mixing Ukiyo-e and Shunga in a humorous pop art fashion, in some cases
using known western cartoon characters. This references the tradition
of narrative art [or telling stories with a series of sequential
images] which has been a part of Japanese culture long before Superman
ever put on a cape. The earliest examples of pre-manga artwork that
influenced the development of modern Japanese comics are commonly
attributed to Toba Sojo, an 11th-century painter-priest with a
whimsical sense of humour. Another influential artist in the
development of modern manga was Hokusai. While Hokusai’s iconic
woodblock erotic prints and images of Mount Fuji are known the world
over, his manga sketchbooks are also some of the best early examples
of humour in Japanese art. Hokusai was also the first artist to use
the term “manga” or “playful sketches” to describe his humorous
images. Shunga’s influence continues to be seen in contemporary manga,
especially hentai or sexually explicit manga. Japornism also pays
homage to Ligne Claire [french for clear line]a style of drawing
pioneered by Herge the Belgian creator of Tintin which in itself was
heavily influenced by Shin- Hanga an aspect of the Japanisme movement.
Shin-Hanga [new art] took Ukiyo-e to a new renaissance by integrating
western elements without giving up the old values of Japanese
traditional woodblock prints something that Herge greatly admired.
Interesting to note that in Japan, Herges most famous character is
called Tan Tan as TinTin in Japanese is a nick name for a boys penis!