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Art in Japan>Contemporary Art 1930-2004>Modern Paintings of Mongolia Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan. Modern Paintings of Mongoliaby John McGee From colorful Buddhist applique to propaganda-style paintings of happy villagers toiling for the good of the State, the work in this show reflects Mongolia's 20th-century search for identity amid political upheavals and modernization. The first of its kind on foreign soil, the show uses 19th-century tanka (colorful, usually symmetrical Buddhist images painted by monks) as its historical backdrop.  Ch. Bazarvaani, State Symbolic Flag, Tibetan Buddhism, ferried in along the Silk Road over the centuries, informed Mongolia's visual culture, and tanka was the most common art form in Mongolia before the 20th century. While some Mongolian tanka were painted, many were made of brightly colored and patterned appliqued cloth, a practical solution to the problem of rolling and unrolling (which cracks paint) necessitated by the frequent travels of the nomadic culture. Both painted and appliqued tanka are displayed here, with the silk applique of the badass, three-eyed Tibetan god Dorjdagdan a standout. Genre painting emerged around the beginning of the 20th century, an example being One Day in Mongolia (1911-1919) by the monk B. Sharav. One of Mongolia's most important painters, Sharav created a graphic birth-to-death visual encyclopedia of Mongolian life. Seen from a candid bird's-eye perspective above the hills, people make love, plow fields and prepare felt for making into the walls of the traditional Mongolian mobile home, the ger (yurt). 
L. Bayagalan, Children's Park,
1979, This bucolic lifestyle wouldn't last. Mongolia became independent from China in 1921, set up a socialist government, and allied with the Soviet Union. For 70 years, until they became a republic in 1992, the landlocked country and its people were virtually cut off from the rest of the world. During this time, Mongolia's main cultural exchange partner was the Soviet Union. Religious painting was violently suppressed, but a number of young Mongolian painters were invited to study art at academies in Moscow and St. Petersburg during the 1940s. There they learned Western oil painting techniques like Impressionism and the popular propaganda tool of social realism. After returning, these painters captured Mongolian lifestyle in the new, state-approved way: heroic proletariat enjoying traditional sports like wrestling and horsemanship; smiling, prosperous villagers working under high-tension electrical cables; and a happy, one-child family admiring their new radio. In the '60s, Mongolian painters began to expand their experimentation with various Western styles. The bright colors of the Fauves appeared and several paintings reference the bold color and designs of Georgia O'Keefe or Thomas Hart Benton.  Ts. Dorj, Girl Playing with Calf,
1975, The hybrids of traditional and modern in the Nihonga-like Mongol Zurag style, however, are the most fascinating pieces. For Children's Park (1979), L. Bayagalan used the symmetrical style of painted tanka for Soviet-style happy children playing in an amusement park. The embroidered fabric tanka style was used for propaganda posters hailing great Mongolian revolutionaries. In Ensemble of Clouds (1977), stylized thunderheads are painted to look like appliqued cloth. And graphic, cartoony doe-eyes are applied equally to kawaii children (Girl Playing with Calf, 1975) and supposedly fierce rutting male camels (Two Camels, 1971). The organization of the show is a bit uneven and some of the paintings feel irrelevant, muddled or even tacky relative to the strength of others. But given the paucity of Mongolian exhibitions, this one at the JR East-owned Tokyo Station Gallery may the next best thing to a shinkansen to Ulan Bator. _______________________________________The Modern Paintings of Mongolia exhibition was held Aug-Sept at Tokyo Station Gallery in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. ©2006 John McGee |
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