Anglo-Japanese style

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The Anglo-Japanese style refers to a period approximately 1872 through 1900 when a new awareness of, and appreciation for Asian, particularly Japanese, design and culture impacted architecture, and the decorative arts of the United Kingdom.

The style developed in parallel with the British Arts and Crafts Movement and the Aesthetic Movement. In furniture design the impact is seen in simple rectilinear lines, a simplification of pattern and motif, and a value placed on the handmade, using materials that ranged from expensive high style ebonized woods to humble materials like beech or printed paper. In ceramics the presence of the hand, use of reduction glazes as in the process, raku, organic form, and acceptance and celebration of imperfection. In commercial mass-produced ceramics the style was evoked more by motif: vignettes of bamboo, paper fans, and scenes of Japan.

The style anticipated the minimalism of twentieth century Modernism. British designers influenced by this style include Christopher Dresser, Edward William Godwin, James Lamb, William Morris, Philip Webb, and the decorative arts wall painting of James McNeil Whistler. In the United States some of the glass and silverwork by Louis Comfort Tiffany, textiles and wallpaper by Candace Wheeler, and the furniture of Nimura and Sato and the Herter Brothers (particularly that produced after 1870} shows influence of the Anglo-Japanese style.

[edit] References

• Halen, Widar. Christopher Dresser, a Pioneer of Modern Design. Phaidon: 1990. ISBN 0-7148-2952-8.
• Snodin, Michael and John Styles. Design & The Decorative Arts, Britain 1500–1900. V&A Publications: 2001. ISBN 1-85177-338-X.