South China Morning Post
Hiromasa Ikeda
South China Morning Post
October 17, 1997
SECTION: WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 1257 words
HEADLINE: A brisk guided tour through Western history
BYLINE: Victoria Finlay reviews a museum art show which could never be found in
Europe or North America
BODY:
Is it, visitors must ask themselves, relevant that the collection of Western
paintings that opened this week at the Hong Kong Museum of Art was put together
by the biggest Buddhist sect in Japan?
And that the sect - Soka Gakkai (the Society for Creating Values) - is one
with massive political aspirations, alternatively praised or condemned by many
who observe it, and which has already been involved in at least one major art
scandal?
Perhaps it is possible to walk through an exhibition and see it simply as a
collection of paintings - big names like Monet, Renoir, Gainsborough and
Chagall, works that are solidly representative of their genre - that have never
been seen in this way in Hong Kong before.
After all, when the 17th and 18th-century oils have appeared here they have
tended to be second-rate pieces appearing with massive price tags in hotel
-suite shows run by private galleries - lots of racing horses and romantic
landscapes, with China trade paintings for good measure.
This show is different - a museum show, which you could never find in a
museum in Europe or North America, because the breadth of its ambition would be
impossible to contemplate or concede in the West.
The unimaginatively titled Masterpieces of Western Oil Painting from the
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is a brisk guided hike through the history of Western art.
In just 61 paintings it traverses the past five centuries.
It takes us from the realism of the 16th century to the surrealism of the
20th century, via the depictions of canals, waterlilies and wealthy children
that filled the homes of wealthy 17th, 18th and 19th-century Europeans.
The paintings are arranged in a chronological order, starting with a
portrait of an Italian official (who rather oddly has no ears) by Bellini, and
whirling through the ages of realism, classicism, mannerism and impressionism
with a nod, or perhaps - this being a Japanese collection - a bow, to each.
"We would not show these paintings in this way in Europe," said the head
curator of the collection, Akira Sokita. And for similar reasons, he said, they
would not show their Asian collection in Asia. These shows are horses for
foreign courses, designed to instruct, entertain and impress.
PAGE 6
There is a strong sense of authority on these white walls hung with the dark
picture-chronicles of Western history. And the fact that this particular
collection represents one further step in Western art history - the role of
post-war Japanese corporations in propping up its market and pushing it to
extraordinary prices - simply adds to its relevance.
The catalogue suggests we look at themes - particularly those of portraiture
and landscape - and see how they changed.
But there is an extra frisson to this collection when you consider it as the
choice of a man - Daisaku Ikeda - who has been named among the most powerful and
enigmatic in Japan. He is the former leader of about 10 million followers in 115
countries, the power behind the Clean Government Party, a voice for peace - and
yet one whom some have accused of scare tactics.
What was it that made this particular collector choose one work and reject
another? Was it an urge to collect "one of each", a desire (certainly there) for
the power that art ownership bestows, the investment potential it offers, or
some deeper thread?
At the opening press tour, Mr Sokita emphasised that part of the purpose of
the collection was atonement in some way for Japan's role in World War II. Soka
Gakkai - which started in 1930 - was always against the war: its founder
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi died in jail for resistance to the Shinto regime.
According to newspaper interviews, Mr Ikeda's own abiding memory of the war
was coughing up phlegm as he laboured in an ironworks factory as a young
teenager with tuberculosis supporting his family.
So what is his taste, this charismatic leader who hated war, or who at least
hated that particular war?
What is surprising is how very secular the choices are. We find no sense of
pilgrimage in the paintings, and very little emphasis on the suffering of
humanity, on compassion, or the utter mystifying beauty of the world.
Most of the 61 works are not paintings that, in their time, have challenged
authority and the status quo; the underlying thread between them is, it seems,
more about a celebration of form than of spirit. Subjects of portraits have
neither holiness nor unholiness about them, but more a sense of social position.
The exhibition has many pleasures - the first painting Cezanne finished
during his stay in Auvers; the waterlilies, of course; a close-cropped
16th-century door panel by Paolo Veronese of two boys where the action is all
directed away from the centre (you want to open that door); a melancholy
portrait of two women by Marie Laurencin.
A small disappointment is in the choice of work by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The Young Woman in Red Dress sitting so complacently in the artist's studio
circa 1892 is a good enough example of Renoir's accomplishment: she is pretty
with soft red cheeks, a sense of calmness, and an intriguingly quizzical
expression in her eyes.
But how much more interesting - from an art-historical perspective - would
it have been to have seen either After the Bath or Young Girl Reading, believed
still to be owned by the Fuji Museum, and which were involved in a scandal
involving Mitsubishi and a missing 1.5 billion yen (about HK$ 95 million) in
1991.
If one of the intentions of this should-see show is education - and it
certainly should be - then the educational brochure is particularly
disappointing. At least there is one, museum fans might argue; at least someone
has spent the time trying to help young people to look - to really look - at
these canvases. But this guide to 11 of the works is not sophisticated enough to
be simple.
Try asking a child a question such as: "What do you think about the plastic
freedom of expression in impressionist paintings?"
Try, for that matter, asking an adult. The answer will in most cases be
paraphraseable as "not a lot".
Questions like this do not serve art, they defeat it. They push it into the
dusty corner of difficult, boring things. Monet's waterlilies - of which there
is one misty-green twilight version in the exhibition, and about which that
question was asked - should delight rather than perplex.
This latest exhibition is a big test for the Museum of Art, which has been
coming under scrutiny for its pitiful attendance figures.
For this rare show, teachers of all levels should be queueing up to collect
the information packs and booking their students for guided sessions; there
should be clever and trendy adverts on television and throughout the MTR; the
press should have been informed a month in advance (which they were not); people
should be talking; the galleries should be full.
It will be interesting to see how many people make the effort to see this
show. If they number less than a few thousand every day, then perhaps it is time
our Museum of Art got back to basics, took a tip from its sponsors, and had a
look at how it really can create value for the money Hong Kong taxpayers place
in it.
Museum of Art until November 30. 10am-6pm Tues-Sat; 1pm-6pm Sun and public
holidays. Also: Carolyn Muir talks about The Landscape and the Figure (in
English), Oct 25, 2.30pm; and Jackie Kwok looks at Light in 17th-Century
Realistic Painting (in Cantonese), Nov 1, 2.30pm. $ 10 ($ 5) - Wednesdays free
GRAPHIC: Vivid . . . Giorgio de Chirico: Metaphysical Interior with Picture of
Villa; Workof art . . . Francois Boucher'soil on canvasPastoral Music, one of 61
works at the Museum of Art's latest exhibition
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http://www.cebunet.com/sgi/look863.htm
"According to the organization's public-relations director, Yukimasa Fujiwara, it has an average
net annual income of over $8,500,000 -- tax-exempt as with all acknowledged religions"
LOOK Magazine
September 10, 1963
"Because We have the money, and Hokkeko does
not have EVEN A FRACTION of the money we have,
who do you think will win this battle between
the corrupt priesthood and SGI?"
Richard Hower, SGI-USA member
"Soka Gakkai is unmistakably a church militant in Japan geared for a determined march abroad.
It's significance to America and all nations cannot be ignored. Its target is world domination"
LOOK Magazine
September 10, 1963
"Recently, the Japan Times had reported that a 33-year-old an "avid follower of Soka
Gakkai," had shoved his four-year-old son into the path of an oncoming train, then
changed his mind about committing suicide. The child died of a fractured skull."
LOOK Magazine
September 10, 1963
"By the end of the interview, it was clear that Ikeda, whose word is absolute law to 10 million
unquestioning believers, was unflinchingly confident that Soka Gakkai will succeed in the total
conversion of Japan, and then the world."
LOOK Magazine
September 10, 1963
"To Dr. Yoshiro Tamura, associate professor of Toyo University, the "true nature" of
Soka Gakkai is "fanatic and dangerous." He says Soka Gakkai "makes politics
dependent upon religion as long as that religion is Soka Gakkai . . . and will eventually
act against freedom of religion."
LOOK Magazine
September 10, 1963
"William P Woodard of Tokyo's International Institute for the Study of Religions comments:
"Soka Gakkai does not respect the rights of others. It threatens reprisals to all who oppose
it. Followers are obliged to engage in forced conversion, and in doing so, they force
themselves into private homes and refuse to leave when asked. They disrupt public meetings
and threaten nonbelievers. Leaders encourage violence.
"Soka Gakkai has developed in such a sinister manner," Woodard contends, "that
most people in positions of public responsibility are afraid to take objective stands
against it. They are literally afraid; they never know what form reprisal will take. Its
insidious nature makes it a definite threat to a free, democratic society. It creates a
kind of private terrorism"
LOOK Magazine
September 10, 1963
"Dear Carmen, do you really think that sending spies to
the temple violates their rights somehow? Isn't it
the method of the spy to not get caught? To blend in?
If he creates a disruption, then he reveals himself."
Kathy Ruby
"Yes, I do pray every day for the Nichiren Shoshu temples in the United
States to close do to lack of support. I believe they are spreading a
deluded view of Buddhism in response to the devil king of the sixth heaven's
command."
Tom CUltican, SGI-USA
"Changing the subject doesn't work. Ikeda made a deal to not
establish SGI in China, in return the communists made an agreement not
to persecute SGI members. Considering the very limited room to
maneuver it was a diplomatic decision."
Chris Holte
SereniTbyTheSea
Copyright 1997 South China Morning Post Ltd.
South China Morning Post
October 17, 1997
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OH GEE THE POST IS ONLY 5 year old this time...Validity???? Ikeda arrested
yet?
Getting out of the 90s ALMOST..wow, are you dating a 20 year old or something?
Sheesh
D