A Great Wave reaches Newcastle: The 1913 Japanese Art Exhibition at the Laing Art gallery

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1913, Charles Bernard Stevenson (1874 -1957), the first curator of the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, curated an exhibition of Japanese art, focusing on ukiyo-e prints, swords and hand guards, paintings, and ceramics. Making use of his networking skills, Stevenson obtained loans from local and national private collectors, as well as from institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum. His curation took advantage of the great wave of interest in all things Japanese, which led to an idealised and commodified representation of Japanese culture in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Stevenson also raised awareness of Japanese artistic traditions in Britain, exhibiting some of the tools that Japanese artists had employed in the production of such objects. This article examines how a provincial British curator was able to address the popularity of the idealised image of Japan, whilst defusing the mystery and exoticism associated with such a ‘romantic' vision. He was able to deconstruct part of the de-historicised idea of Japanese culture although the view of Japan as exotic ‘Other' remained. This article explores Stevenson's role in spreading a more contextualised representation of Japanese art in the Northeast of England, questioning the ‘peripheral’ connotation of British museums outside London.