Japanese Art Collection from Turin on Show in Madrid

CentroCentro in Madrid hosts 'Japan, a Story of Love and War' until January 2022, featuring around 200 works from the Bartolone Gobbi Collection. The exhibition, produced by Evolucionarte, traces Japanese aesthetics from the 17th century to WWII through eleven historical and thematic sections. Curated by Pietro Gobbi, it includes ukiyo-e woodblock prints by Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, and Tupamaru, as well as samurai armor, kimonos, fans, katana, and hand-colored photographs. The collection, amassed since the 1990s by Pietro Gobbi and Enzo Bartolone, comprises over 350 pieces, including a 1784 illustrated album by Kitao Masanobu. The show covers the Edo period (1603-1868) to early 1900s, exploring themes of war, theater (No and Kabuki), shunga erotica, landscape, nature, and religion. Bartolone notes that during the interwar period, Japanese visitors brought art to Italy as gifts, later entering the antique market. Italian photographers Felice Beato and engraver Edoardo Chiossone are highlighted for their influence in Japan; Chiossone's collection is at Genoa's Museo Chiossone.