Japanomania

As the first of its kind, this exhibition at The National Museum shows the wide-ranging influence of Japanese art on Nordic art and design around 1900. Japan opened its borders in 1854, Japanese objects soon found their way into world exhibitions and famous department stores in Paris and London. It was in these metropolises, around 1860, that this East-Asian culture first had an impact. Internationally, the movement became known as Japonism, or the Anglo-Japanese style.

The illustration style reinterprets two Japanese artworks in the style Nordic artists discovered when they first encountered Japanese art, placing emphasise on asymmetry, simplification and stylisation.