Japomanie

The exhibition at the Bank Austria Kunstforum (until 20th January 2019) is devoted to the influence of Japanese Art on European artists like Klimt, Degas and Lautrec to name just three.

A happy discovery for me was the Prague-born Emil Orlik (1870 - 1932).  One of his Japanese woodcuts is the third one down.

 '36 Views of Mount Fuji' - Katsushika Hokusai 1830
'Under the Wave at Kanagawa'

 '36 Views of Mount Fuji' - Katsushika Hokusai 1830
'Tama River in Musashi Province'

'Japanese Pilgrims on Way to Fujiama' - Emil Orlik 1901

I can imagine that European artist Henri Riviere (1864 -1951) drew inspiration from Katsushika Housai for he titled his 1902 series '36 Views of the Eiffel Tower'.

For copyright reasons I don't have any of Henri's Eiffel Tower pictures to show you.

Van Gogh's 'Butterflies and Poppies' on loan from Amsterdam was on show, and there were a couple of quotes from Vincent on the wall nearby, including this one: 

I envy the Japanese the extraordinarily clear clarity pervading their works. It is never boring and never seems to have been done in haste. It is as simple as breathing.

'Butterflies and Poppies' 1889
Vincent Van Gogh 

A famous and mysterious work to be seen was this:

'The Red Cow' 1889
Paul Gaugin 

It's a real mystery, that  decapitated cow.

Even the two 'experts' I watched on YouTube didn't have an answer.