DOI Artikel:
Machotka, Ewa: Orientalizm czy nacjonalizm?: Jasieńskiego Japonia
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26693#0110
Orientalism or nationalism? jasieńskis Japan. Summary 109
Orientalism or nationalism? - Jasieńskfs Japan
Summary
“Lets learn from the Japanese how to be Poles”1 called Feliks Jasieński (1861-1929), an en-
fant terrible of Polish art criticism of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in a Warsaw
newspaper in 1901. This one sentence of Jasieński s encapsulated his artistic credo and
ushered the reader into the world of art theory, which remains controversial till this day.
In this succinct remark Jasieński combined two apparently contrary philosophical views:
orienatlism, which is based on fascination with cultural difference, and nationalism that
cultivates cultural identity. Who is Jasieński then? What is his disputable artistic program-
me based on? Is he an orientalist adoring the Japanese art or a nationalist interested in
building Polish national art?
A photograph taken in 1902-1904, the first phase of his public activity, features Jasień-
ski in a Japanese helmet and a kimono worn over European clothes [II. 1]. The frontally
captured figurę with a very straight posturę and an enigmatic smile does not make it plain
if this masąuerade is a joke or a conscious image. The oriental costume doubtless unveils
Jasieńskis Japanese interests but it remains unclear whether it symbolically rejects Euro-
pean culture and assumes a Japanese identity or is only a fancy dress with all that Japani-
sms as a masque only.
Interestingly, unlike Jasieńskis activity as an animator of Polish modern culture
and his art collection of nearly fifteen thousand objects that have been studied in deta-
il over the past twenty years, Jasieńskis art theory with the recurring Japanese focus as
well as his engagement in the discussion on creating Polish national art are unknown
to the wider public.2 This study is an attempt to seek an answer to the challening qu-
estion about who that puzzling man was, calling upon Poles to follow the Japanese model.
Jasieńskis activity is analyzed by reference to a number of manifestos he published, pla-
cing those in the context of the ideologies of two mutually exclusive directions in thought:
orientalism and nationalism, both of which developed towards the end of the 19th century.
1 Feliks Jasieński, Przed I- szą wystawę sztuki japońskiej [Before the First Exhibition of Japanese Art],
„Kurier Warszawski” 44 (1901), p. 1.
2 Jasieńskis cultural engagement is presented in Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójciks articles (1993, 1994),
and the collection itself is discussed in detail by Stefania Kozakowska and Barbara Małkiewiczowa (1989).
Jasieńskis writings, particularly his monograph Manggha, promenades a travers le monde, lart et les idees
(Manggha. Travelling Across the World, Art and Ideas, 1901) were translated and studied by Ewa Mio-
dońska-Brooks and Maria Cieśla Korytowska (1992). The author of this paper devoted her MA theses
to the concept of national art created by Jasieński (unpublished, Jagiellonian University Institute of Art
History, 1998).
Orientalism or nationalism? - Jasieńskfs Japan
Summary
“Lets learn from the Japanese how to be Poles”1 called Feliks Jasieński (1861-1929), an en-
fant terrible of Polish art criticism of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in a Warsaw
newspaper in 1901. This one sentence of Jasieński s encapsulated his artistic credo and
ushered the reader into the world of art theory, which remains controversial till this day.
In this succinct remark Jasieński combined two apparently contrary philosophical views:
orienatlism, which is based on fascination with cultural difference, and nationalism that
cultivates cultural identity. Who is Jasieński then? What is his disputable artistic program-
me based on? Is he an orientalist adoring the Japanese art or a nationalist interested in
building Polish national art?
A photograph taken in 1902-1904, the first phase of his public activity, features Jasień-
ski in a Japanese helmet and a kimono worn over European clothes [II. 1]. The frontally
captured figurę with a very straight posturę and an enigmatic smile does not make it plain
if this masąuerade is a joke or a conscious image. The oriental costume doubtless unveils
Jasieńskis Japanese interests but it remains unclear whether it symbolically rejects Euro-
pean culture and assumes a Japanese identity or is only a fancy dress with all that Japani-
sms as a masque only.
Interestingly, unlike Jasieńskis activity as an animator of Polish modern culture
and his art collection of nearly fifteen thousand objects that have been studied in deta-
il over the past twenty years, Jasieńskis art theory with the recurring Japanese focus as
well as his engagement in the discussion on creating Polish national art are unknown
to the wider public.2 This study is an attempt to seek an answer to the challening qu-
estion about who that puzzling man was, calling upon Poles to follow the Japanese model.
Jasieńskis activity is analyzed by reference to a number of manifestos he published, pla-
cing those in the context of the ideologies of two mutually exclusive directions in thought:
orientalism and nationalism, both of which developed towards the end of the 19th century.
1 Feliks Jasieński, Przed I- szą wystawę sztuki japońskiej [Before the First Exhibition of Japanese Art],
„Kurier Warszawski” 44 (1901), p. 1.
2 Jasieńskis cultural engagement is presented in Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójciks articles (1993, 1994),
and the collection itself is discussed in detail by Stefania Kozakowska and Barbara Małkiewiczowa (1989).
Jasieńskis writings, particularly his monograph Manggha, promenades a travers le monde, lart et les idees
(Manggha. Travelling Across the World, Art and Ideas, 1901) were translated and studied by Ewa Mio-
dońska-Brooks and Maria Cieśla Korytowska (1992). The author of this paper devoted her MA theses
to the concept of national art created by Jasieński (unpublished, Jagiellonian University Institute of Art
History, 1998).