Nude Woman Holding a Black Cat - Fritz Capelari
In the spring of 1915, the Japanese publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885–1962) saw an exhibition of watercolors at a department store gallery in Tokyo by Fritz Capelari, an Austrian artist who had been living in Asia since 1911. Watanabe had been looking for an artist trained in Western-style painting with whom he could work on a new type of color woodblock print, but rooted in the traditions of Japanese ukiyo-e (浮世绘). Apparently he had already been turned down by Japanese artists, who were not interested in sullying their reputations in the fine art world by producing popular or decorative art. Foreigners in Japan would have been less burdened by the commercial implications of Watanabe's vision and had little to risk by participating in his experiment. Capelari accepted an invitation from Watanabe to visit his shop and shortly thereafter the two began collaborating on producing woodblock prints. Within one year they completed 12 designs, which included landscapes and figural prints. As you can see on today's print, these designs and subjects resonate with classic ukiyo-e, at the same time, the Western influences are evident.
