Demon of Painting

Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889), described as "The Intoxicated Demon of Painting" - who could paint a 50-foot theatre curtain in four hours - was a serious student of earlier styles, producing meticulous scrolls of beauties and Buddhist deities. He was also a comic artist of crazy pictures and political satires. In his introduction, Timothy Clark shows this artist at work in a Japan which was undergoing the process of modernization. Although he had satirized the disintegrating feudal regime of the Tokugawa shoguns, Kyosai did not spare the new Meiji regime which came to power in 1868; indeed, his drawings soon led to a prison sentence. Yet, although he lampooned the contemporary Japanese craze for emulating the west, Kyosai became friendly with many European visitors to Japan. This illustrated catalogue - accompanying an exhibition at the British Museum, London - brings together 112 works by Kyosai, including paintings, drawings, woodblock prints snd illustrated books. These are drawn from private and public collections in both Europe and Japan. An appendix illustrates a further 99 works by the artist, held in the British Museum's collection.
Timothy Clark is author of "Ukiyo-e Paintings in the British Museum" and co-author of "Japanese Art: Masterpieces in the British Museum."