The exhibition, ¡°Fascination of Europe: Western-style Paintings in Modern Japan,¡± introduces a highly interesting group of western-style paintings by modern Japanese artists collected and displayed in the Yi Royal Museum from 1933 to 1943. These paintings are part of a larger collection preserved by the Yi Royal Museum which consists of modern Japanese-style paintings, western-style paintings, sculptures and craftworks.

The National Museum of Korea holds a selection of 40 Western-style painting from the Yi Royal Museum collection. These pieces include 33 oil paintings, two drawings, four prints, and one pastel drawing. For the reader¡¯s convenience, I have arranged these modern Japanese paintings according to their subject matter; human figures, landscapes, etc.

These Western-style paintings by modern Japanese modern artists from the holding of the Yi Royal Museum were first recommend by Masaki Naohiko (1862-1940), director of the Imperial Art Academy, and the president of the Tokyo Art College, Wada Eisaku (1874-1959) in Japan. Then the Korean King Yeongchin(1897-1970) made his final decision on acquisition. According to Masaki Naohiko¡¯s diary, King Yeongchin did not accept everything suggested by the Japanese. He sometimes in fact had rejected the Japanese recommended art works. Therefore, the first and only holding of Japanese western-style paintings in Korea which has been carefully preserved in the Yi Royal Museum can undoubtedly be regarded as: the King¡¯s Choice.

In Section One: ¡°Encounter of East and West: Western-style paintings in Japan,¡± I introduce the history of Japanese western-style paintings from the 16th century to the 20th century. Three examples from the Yi Royal Museum collections show the incorporation of traditional themes in modern oil paintings such as the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and flower arrangement, ikebana.
 
In Section Two: ¡°The female world: Figure paintings in modern Japan,¡± it is interesting to note that all but one of the human figure paintings in the collection depicts a female figure. Traditionally, female images in Japanese paintings (for example, e-maki, mishi-e, and ukiyo-e) were rendered without reference to a human model. However, in western-style paintings, modern Japanese artists approached the female figure first through careful observation prior to depicting the subject in lifelike detail. Despite this, Japanese artists still followed iconic conventions. The seated female pose in particular became the primary model of composition for western-style figure paintings in Japan. Subsequently, due to colonial influence, many other Asian countries followed Japans lead. Many similar western-style works were created by young Korean painters at Joseon Art Exhibition.

It is important to note that Japan's modern western-style paintings also expropriate the European aesthetic value of seeking to glorify the inherent beauty of the nude body. Unlike the frank empathy of traditional Japanese erotic art, the resulting nude images of western-style paintings often maintain an aesthetic distance from the viewers.

In Section Three: ¡°Impressions of light: Landscape painting in modern Japan,¡± I introduce the importance of light and shadow, already been well developed and popularized by western-style paintings, in Japan through the use of oils on canvas. I also point out the important fact that the subjects of these painting are not merely domestic landscapes but also foreign scenes.
By making paintings based on what they saw while traveling in Europe and Asia, the artists were obviously expressing a new fascination with things foreign. Beyond this, I also try to explore how such choices of subject represent the turn toward more globalized forms of artistic expression.

It is undoubtedly significant that majority of the works in this book are published for the first time since 1945. Many Japanese artists included in this collection were active at that time in Korea as judges in the important Joseon Art Exhibitions during the colonial period. They also had a major impact on the development of western-style art in our own country.

When a culture embraces change it can persist eternally. It is hoped that this special exhibition will help Koreans to understand how in modern times the Japanese tried to learn new artistic styles and concepts from Europe which were unknown before. In addition it is hoped that that the exhibition will facilitate we Koreans rediscovering this modern art movement from our own cultural context.

Last but not least, I wish to sincerely thank the families of these Japanese artists for kindly giving us permission to publish these images for the catalogue.