A new vision: modern Japanese prints from the Heriot collection

Tuhinga 31: 91-112

ABSTRACT: This is the third article addressing the 2016 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) acquisition of a selection of Japanese artworks from the collection of Ian and Mary Heriot. Its scope embraces woodblock prints from the Meiji, Taishö and Shöwa periods (1868–1912, 1912–26, and 1926–89, respectively). These include compositions relatively unfamiliar in New Zealand; most earlier collectors had been preoccupied with the ukiyo-e ‘floating world pictures’ of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.The works are significant, however, for appreciating the twentieth-century revitalisation of the medium, its sustained popularity in Japan and its appeal for collectors in the West. The appeal of these later works to the Heriots reflects their depth of knowledge in the field, and the enquiring minds they brought to their interest in Japanese pictorial arts. Ian Heriot acknowledges the enjoyment of ‘relatively modern Japanese art’ that distinguishes his collection from others, and the dispositions of curiosity and taste for the unusual that have informed this. He became very knowledgeable in the field, joining an international shin-hanga (‘new print’) interest group to cultivate his knowledge in the
field and better understand the works he acquired. The innovative engagements of the later artists, and the new visions and stylistic tropes they brought to conventional print subjects of kabuki actors, historical themes, natural history or landscape, sustained the pleasures and the cognitive engagements afforded by earlier works. For viewers today, they complement ukiyo-e collections and inform a comprehensive picture of the historical development of the Japanese woodblock print and shifts in the aesthetic and historical interests that shape the habits of collectors.

KEYWORDS: Japanese prints, shin-hanga, art collecting, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.