Yasumasa Morimura, Portrait (Futago), 1988

Yasumasa Morimura, Portrait (Futago), 1988 ; photograph ; chromogenic print with acrylic paint and gel medium, 82 3/4 in. x 118 in. (210.19 cm x 299.72 cm)

Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/22622#ixzz2OWPIduC1 
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

(source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/22622)

Yasumasa Morimura's Portrait (Futago), 1988 is a typical example of the above issues. Portrait (Futago) intentionally takes from Edouard Manet's Olympia(1863), a master piece of western canon. Morimura imitate Manet's historic masterpiece by recreating the scenes of 'Olympia' through wearing wig, make-up and creating the similar setting. His work lead to the reflection of the Japanese artists' role under the western influence and the gender identity.

Western arts has a important status in art history and influence different arts development in parts of the world . Because of its influential role in the art world and its sophisticated development, many arts development or values are based on the Western side. it seems to become a guideline of art. Japan is also a region that under the sphere of western arts influence. "Since the Meiji restoration of 1868, it brought with western influence in Japanese art world" (D'Evelyn). Western culture started to invade into Japanese society, especially in arts. Japanese artist started to imitate the western painting style. The traditional Japanese painting lost its ground. Morimura is also under a  generation which experienced the western invasion into local art word and culture. "Morimura loved to draw in the traditional Western manner when he was a student. He copied Western masters largely because his school, like most art schools in Japan, taught Western art and art history" (Brew). Later on, he started to concern the western influence on Japanese culture as a Japanese artist. In Portrait (Futago), Morimura attempts to questioning the status of western arts in the Asian arena and the role of Japanese or Asian arts under the invasion of western culture in his work Portrait (Futago) by showing an Asian figure which replaces the original nude Olympia in a European painting canon. He, himself, situating in a western painting setting represents the Japanese artists under the western arts atmosphere.

Gender identity is another important theme of Portrait (Futago). In western painting, female nude is a traditional genre. It was a master genre of the official French salons of the nineteenth century. Many artists had accessed this theme such as Courbet to Matisse and Picasso. Indeed ,the nude female in Manet's Olympia is as a product for male gaze and sexual desires. "He tried to profane the idealized nude in the academic  tradition" (Musee d'Orsay, 2006). Morimura further develop this topic by questioning the gender identity of nude female in the western painting. In the Portrait (Futago), " Morimura makes up his body, wears a wig and imitates with his masqueraded body-image a female gender-role as a servant of sexual desires. What the artist presents in his performance remains the male gaze on an 'incomplete' female body-image" (Wagner, 2004). He try to question the gender identity of nude female in the western painting. On the other hand, his masquerading is incomplete as the missing of female sexual identification, breasts, and the assumed presence of male sexual organ, penis. What are the lines for the gender identity (sexual organs, costumes, make-up, others perceptions)?" The placement of Morimura as a woman destabilizes the notion of fixed, binary gender roles of male and female that is prevalent in existing culture, and instead constructs a new, more elastic gender identity, where stereotypes of male and female are subverted "(Roca, 2006).

Reference:

D'Evelyn , H. (n.d.). Western encounter: The transformation of japanese art. Retrieved from http://www.stolaf.edu/people/kucera/YoshidaWebsite/evolution/essay_pages/heather_d.evelyn.htm

Brew , J. (n.d.). Yasumasa morimura - the art of self-portaiture in a post-modern global japan. Retrieved from http://outsiderjapan.pbworks.com/w/page/9758570/Yasumasa Morimura - The Art of Self-Portaiture in a Post-Modern Global Japa

Musee d'Orsay. (2006). Olympia. Retrieved from http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=851&L=1&tx_commentaire_pi1[showUid]=7087&no_cache=1

Roca, Raymond

Roca, R. (2006, 03). Cultural identity is constructed and challenged by stereotypes. Retrieved from http://www.agero-stuttgart.de/REVISTA-AGERO/ARTICOLE IN LIMBI STRAINE/Cultural identity de RR.htm

Wagner, B. (2004, 12 21). Gender - double trouble and transgression: Yasumasa morimura's appropriation of a desirable body. Retrieved from http://academinist.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/010112Wagner_Yasumasa.pdf