TOULOUSE-LAUTREC: FRANCE'S PROTO-WARHOL

La Troupe de Mademoiselle Eglantine

There are interesting parallels between Andy Warhol and the French fin de siecle artist Toulouse-Lautrec, whose art is now on display at the "Toulouse-Lautrec et la vie parisienne" exhibition at the Suntory Art Museum

Each was an odd-looking and instantly recognizable figure, who existed within a Bohemian milieu, was obsessed with celebrity, and produced print works that embodied the relationship between art and commerce. This is one of many impressions you might take home from this richly textured exhibition, which pays particular attention to Lautrac's posters of the celebrities of his day. "This exhibition has some new points of view," Akira Tomita, general director of the Suntory Art Museum explains.

"We show his art in its entirety; not only posters, but also his paintings and designs, and documents from the period. In Japan, this is the first time to show all the media of his works in this quantity."

The wealth of Lautrec's own output in oils, gouaches, pastels, and lithographs is also supplemented by several Japanese ukiyo-e prints. The presence of these works allows visitors to explore Japanese influences – Lautrec's use of curvilinear silhouettes, the compartmentalization of color, and the flattening of space are all giveaways, but also more specific resonances are suggested.

For example, the pose and atmosphere of Toshusai Sharaku's print, Tanimura Torazo in the role of Washizuka Yaheiji (1794), seems to have been carried over into the pose and atmosphere of Lautrec's poster of the actor Aristide Bruant, Eldorado, Aritide Bruant (1892).

The exhibition also fleshes things out by showing artworks by contemporary artists, including caricatures of Lautrec, and, best of all, photos and videos of the scenes and personalities of the period, giving us a sense of the subject matter independent from Lautrec's artworks, which, in turn, helps us to appreciate exactly what it was he brought to the equation.

"We focus on the Montemarte period from the mid 1880s to the late 1990s because this period is essential for his art," Tomita says. "In Montemarte his talent and ability flourished and he found a subject that he could concentrate on."

By focusing on the essence of Lautrec's later work the exhibition naturally runs the risk of reinforcing all the usual cliches about an artist who was as iconic in his person as he was in his art.

Rousse, 1889

As your eye passes over the backstage johnny – complete with top hat, monocle, and cane – in Danseuse dans sa loge (1885), the flouncy-skirted can-can girls of La Troupe de Mademoiselle Eglantine (1896), or the functional intimacy of the prostitute in Rousse (1889), there is a sense of the usual suspects being rounded up yet again. But, at the same time, the strong background work of the exhibition goes some way to bringing these characters of the Parisian demimonde to life.

Most effective in this respect are a number of items connected with three small lithographs of a famous celebrity of the day, Miss Loie Fuller (1893), an American dancer who proved a Parisian sensation by dancing in voluminous silk garments illuminated with colored lighting. The exhibition includes photos, a statuette, and a medallion, depicting Fuller, but, best of all, we can also see a short film, made in 1896 by the Lumiere brothers, that shows her engaged in her famous Serpentine Dance. Only Lautrec's humble lithographs, with their expansive curves and color washes, succeed in capturing the essence of what we see in the movie.

The exhibition also does much to bring another celebrity of the day alive, Yvette Guilbert, a renowned chanteuse from a poor background, who rose to headline at the Moulin Rouge and was awarded the Legion of Honor in later life. Photos, Lautrec's initial sketches, and a fetching statuette by Leonette Cappiello combine to show us different aspects of Guilbert's puckish charm. This complements the large unfinished poster portrait that Lautrec did of her in charcoal and paint, Yvette Guilbert (1894).

The repetition of images in this case, with its suggestion of the fascination of celebrity, subtly evokes Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe but without the monotony. So, what about the comparison between these two iconic print artists?

"The same point is that they were not only observers of popular culture but were involved in it," Tomita comments. "They were also involved in the economics of art. Lautrec made books and posters in addition to his paintings. This is very commercialized. This is the same. But the difference is Warhol was conscious of the relationship and utilized the system of economics, but Lautrec was unconscious of it and inside the system."

C.B.Liddell
Japan Times
14th February, 2008