ARTIFACTS

Since the late 19th century, Japanese art has been schizophrenically split into yoga (Western-style) and nihonga (Japanese-style). The latter arose as a self-conscious response to the inroads of the former. Nevertheless, when nihonga took up the challenge of Western art, it was unable to avoid borrowing some of its ideas, most notably the romantically inflated concept of the “divine” artist. But instead of Michelangelo or van Gogh, nihonga found its role models in the elite artist/craftsmen of the Rinpa school. The Yamatane Museum of Art’s exhibition What Did Nihonga Learn from Rinpa? uses 50 mainly large works to look at echoes of the school in the works of 20th-century nihonga artists. Particularly worth seeing is Kaii Higashiyama’s vast seascape Rising Tide and Gyoshu Hayami’s Falling Camellias. Through Dec 25. See exhibition listings (Ginza/ Kyobashi/ Tokyo) for details. CBL Giveaway! Metropolis is offering readers ten free tickets to “What Did Nihonga Learn from Rinpa?” For your chance to see this excellent exhibition, email the following information by Wednesday, December 17, to editor@metropolis.co.jp: 1. Name; 2. Address; 3. Age; 4. Home country; 5. Last exhibition you visited Include the text “Nihonga” in the subject line. Winners will be selected at random.

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By John McGee

Today's Man

Matthew Cerletty Birthday Boy, 2003, oil on panel, 18x18in

You may be dating one and not even know it. Is he urban, well-groomed and stylish? Does he preen in front of the mirror? And yet, he's straight? He's probably a metrosexual (or Japanese).

For all guys, looking at yourself-and considering your look-has become accepted and cool. But men looking at men? Sounds gay. Except straight guys do it all the time-Go Real Madrid (and crown prince of metrosexuality, David Beckham)!

"Today's Man" takes these contemporary complications of masculinity as its theme, with depictions of men by 55 different male artists. Some, like Alex Katz and A.A. Bronson (of General Idea) are well established, but most are emerging American artists (with one Japanese, Kentaro Kobuke).

New York gallery John Connelly Presents first held the exhibition-named for a bankrupt clothing store-this summer. Connelly says that he chose small works because his gallery is small, and as a counterpoint to the stereotype of men making big gestural paintings. Also, he says, "I wanted intimacy between the viewer and the works."

Tokyo gallerist Hiromi Yoshii says that when he saw the exhibition in New York, he thought "this is really now," something different than what's offered at Japanese museums. "I wanted to show it to young artists and young collectors [in Japan]."

James Gobel Hunt, 2003 felt, yarn acrylic and enamel on wood 17x19in

One thing the show offers is a great diversity of styles, from conceptualist text on paper to a plaster death-mask to a collage of garbage (Connelly added five artists for the Tokyo show). Most works, however, are drawings or paintings of men, predominantly young and white. And yes, a number of them have gay overtones. A pencil sketch by Hernan Bas has a young dandy straddling a railing along a waterfront, recalling Death in Venice. More overt is Matthew Cerletty's portrait of a young man lying on a striped pillow, his puffy red eyes locked open from the asphyxiating red ribbons lacing his throat in a Christmas corset.

And there is gay by association. Alex Katz's painted portrait of three men seems fairly straightforward. In their businessmen-on-holiday outfits, they look like golf buddies. But that becomes a euphemism when Katz's work is hung next to Everest Hall's trio of tiny head shots of gay icons-Puerto Rican, Clone, Leather-pulled straight off a porn video box.

Sexual tones can be subtle, and non-denominational, as in Erik Hanson's recreation of the album These Foolish Things by Bryan Ferry in white pencil on black paper. Or they can be writ large, as in A.A. Bronson's A4 stamina log, Orgasm Renewal Project, from 1972.

Installation view

Much of the time, however, a man is just a man. Or, rather, a man is the starting point for other abstractions-a blurred photo of Donald Sutherland from Klute, a bronze bust of a man with a very large nose, and assorted cartoons, scribblings, and portraits.

Anyway, America's male identity politics are largely different from Japan's. The show's lasting effect here will likely be the freedom of representation it records and transmits, something like fashion mag Men's Egg but directed at aspiring artists rather than Shibuya fashionistas. As if to confirm that, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery will be coming out with a catalog of the exhibition by the end of the year.

Hiromi Yoshii + Gallery Koyanagi Viewing Room. Until Nov 15. Roppongi stn, exit 3. Complex, Roppongi 6-8-14, Minato-ku. Tue-Sat 11am-7pm. Tel: 03-5786-3566.