If you’ve spent a great deal of time looking at European design publications from before or after 1900 you may experience a shock of surprise when you encounter a Japanese publication from the same period. Shin-Bijutsukai (“New Oceans of Art”) was a Japanese magazine published in monthly issues from 1902 to 1906. At first glance it looks like an equivalent of European design samplers such as Dekorative Vorbilder or Documents d’atelier: Art décoratif moderne, another collection of colour plates with little or no accompanying text. Many of the samples, however, are the kinds of designs you wouldn’t see in Europe for another 20 years, or even 50 years in some cases. The book linked here seems to contain a complete run of the magazine, and is part of the Smithsonian collection at the Internet Archive, a holding I still haven’t explored very thoroughly. A task for the future.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Documents d’atelier: Art décoratif moderne
• Moderne Malereien, 1903
• Das Thier in der Decorativen Kunst
• Waves and clouds
• Buchschmuck und Flächenmuster by Max Benirschke
• Samarkande by EA Séguy
• Kunstgewerbliche Schmuckformen für die Fläche
• Album de la décoration
• Dekorative Vorbilder
• Combinaisons Ornementales
Any body else get Escheresque, figure/ground distinction vibes from a fair few of these?
Fascinating in their own right.
Wonderful. Thank you! And a great source for my ever-expanding MacOS random wallpaper collection which today happens to be a still of Jakob von Gunten bent to his left, eyes closed, fingers in his ears.