Taisho Chic - Art Gallery NSW

Featuring about 70 paintings, prints, textile and decorative arts, the exhibition: "Taisho Chic – Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia and Deco" encapsulates the clash and embrace of Western modernity and traditional Japan via the Taisho and early Showa eras from 1912 to 1930s.

The exhibition highlights the changing role of women during the Taisho period which splits between the image of the modern girl "modan gaaru" or "moga" and the traditional girl "bijinga". Items include: Kobayakawa Kiyoshi’s Tipsy (1930) embodying the modan gaaru, dressed in a sleeveless polka-dot dress and sporting a short hairdo. Or Nakamura Daizaburo’s Woman (1930, pictured above) portraying film star Irie Takako. An image of sophistication, she wears a bright red kimono and reclines on a 19th century European-style chaise longue.

Taisho Chic exhibition is on loan from the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Taisho Chic will be on view from May 22- Aug 3 2008 at the Art Gallery of NSW Art Gallery Road, The Domain Sydney (ph 02 9225 1744). See the Art Gallery NSW for admission details Art Gallery NSW

Taisho Chic http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/current/taisho_chic