08 June 2011

thinking Shibui


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A return to  ancient Japanese aesthetics  in our modern lives is an honorable path for any Aesthete-the practiced or the novice- to pursue. Thanks to Philip Bewley of  THERIEN & COMPANY right now I am looking at images from the August 1960 House Beautiful -" Discover Shibui: The Word for the Highest Level in Beauty. " I was privileged to  add some comments to Philip's recent essay and have persuaded him to share its content with my readers.






DISCOVER SHIBUI-Philip Bewley

“One of the most influential issues ever by a design magazine” is how the August 1960 issue by House Beautiful magazine titled, “ Discover Shibui: The Word for the Highest Level in Beauty” is described in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution (The Elizabeth Gordon Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). The August “Shibui” issue was followed by the September 1960 issue “How to be Shibui with American Things”. These two landmark magazine issues introduced the American public to Japanese aesthetic of shibui (or shibusa). Elizabeth Gordon, House Beautiful editor (1941-1964) wrote in the August issue “Shibui describes a profound, unassuming, quiet feeling. It is unobtrusive and unostentatious. It may have hidden attainments, but they are not paraded or displayed. The form is simple and must have been arrived at with an economy of means. Shibui is never complicated or contrived.”


photograph by Philip Bewley




THE SEVEN QUALIFIERS
Shibui has seven qualifiers: simplicity, implicitness, modesty, silence, naturalness, everydayness, and imperfection.


Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Ishimoto Yasuhiro

 

AN EDITOR'S RESEARCH
When she covered a topic, she did it in staggering depth,” said Louis Oliver Gropp (Editor House Beautiful magazine, 1991-2000). In Postwar America of the 1950’s, Elizabeth Gordon began noticing Japanese objects being displayed in the homes of Americans who had spent time in Japan during the Occupation. As Editor in Chief of House Beautiful magazine, Gordon read everything she could on Japan before making a visit to that country with a few members of her staff in the spring of 1959. Her extensive library on Japanese history, social mores, art history is now in the collection of the University of Maryland. It was in Kyoto where she became introduced to the aesthetic concept of shibui. In the course of discussions on Japanese aesthetics the theme for a “shibui” issue took hold. Returning home to the U.S., Gordon found virtually nothing written in English on the concept. Two more trips to Japan were taken in preparation, research and photography for the shibui issues. Gordon was in Japan in Mid-August 1960 as the "shibui issue" was causing a sensation. Altogether she spent sixteen months in Japan.



Photograph: Ishimoto Yasuhiro



EAST MEETS WEST
While Western art had certainly been influenced by the decorative arts of Japan before these issues, nothing in English had been written on the Japanese aesthetic of shibui before Elizabeth Gordon introduced shibui to the American public. “These issues were published just as I was finishing high school and preparing to go into design so they were incredibly timely in my development,” Says Bob Garcia (Therien & Co.). “Fortunately I went to The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design soon thereafter and given the Asian bent to the school's curriculum. The colors and compositions of Shibui were engrained in my own aesthetic.”


“It seems quite obvious that the intensely close relationship between the Japanese culture and nature should manifest itself in Shibui. 
The colors and combination of tones and textures are so reflective of those one sees in landscapes and forests; 
so different from our western concepts of man's "mastery" over nature with our brilliant colors and sharp contrasts.
Somehow it all seems related to the different concepts in gardens.... 
the European "taming" of elements and the Japanese "abstract re-interpretation" of them.” 
Robert Roy Garcia, Therien & Co.


Photograph by Ezra Stoller; schemes assembled by John Hill; 1960, for House Beautiful magazine, Elizabeth Gordon, Editor



Ginkaku-ji by Kiichi Asano/Elizabeth Gordon Assoc.Kiichi Asano (1914-1993) - Japanese photographer,
by way of the estate of Elizabeth Gordon (Norcross), editor-in-chief of House Beautiful Magazine from 1941 to 1964.

 photograph by Philip Bewley



BORN IN A TRUNK
I first discovered the House Beautiful shibui issues in a trunk of old magazines when I was a boy. It must have been about 1973 or so. The declaration on the cover that “The Highest level of Beauty” was to be found within must have caught my eye, but I think it was the combination with the second issue, “How to be Shibui with American Things” that opened my mind to the notion that there were considerations behind beauty, and that these ideas were not necessarily Japanese, but were in fact all around me.



 photograph by Philip Bewley




Ryoan-ji Temple Garden /Kiichi Asano/Elizabeth Gordon. Kiichi Asano (1914-1993) - Japanese photographer, 
by way of the estate of Elizabeth Gordon (Norcross), editor-in-chief of House Beautiful Magazine from 1941 to 1964.


SHIBUI SENSATION
Elizabeth Gordon’s August 1960 "Shibui" issue sold out quickly. Copies of the magazine, which originally sold for fifty cents, were being sold privately by 1961 for ten dollars. Immediately following the publication, House Beautiful offices received an unprecedented avalanche of fan mail. Writing in with praise for the issue were department heads in colleges and universities, including the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, even a letter from the famed couturier, Mainbocher.



Photograph by Ezra Stoller; schemes assembled by John Hill; 1960, for House Beautiful magazine, Elizabeth Gordon, Editor
THE SHIBUI ROADSHOW
After the wild success of the two “shibui issues”, House Beautiful staff prepared a traveling exhibition to eleven museums across the United States to introduce the concept of "shibui" through a series of vignettes, mixing fabrics and objects, colors and textures. Japan Air Lines underwrote shipping costs. Commencing the tour in 1961, the Shibui exhibition arrived in San Francisco in April 1962. Elizabeth Gordon presented a lecture accompanied by lanternslides on "shibui" at each of the museum installations.


Photograph by Ezra Stoller; schemes assembled by John Hill; 1960, for House Beautiful magazine, Elizabeth Gordon, Editor
HONORS
In appreciation of Elizabeth Gordon’s work in introducing Americans to the concept of shibui, the city of Kyoto presented to her a bolt of "shibui" kimono fabric executed by a Living National Treasure textile artist.
In 1987 Elizabeth Gordon (Norcross) was named an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, with her introduction of the concept of "shibui" to the United States and her promotion of an understanding of other cultures cited as a major contribution to American architecture.

(all text, quotes are from Philip Bewley, with permission) 



As for me while looking at these 1960 photographs, I thought of looking at them as if the last 50 years of interior design had not existed. Impossible? 
Yes, somewhat. 
After looking at shibui, I think designers should consider rethinking some “off the rails” ideas considered of the moment, at the moment and return to this Japanese aesthetic in order to cleanse the palate- as it were.





Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Gift of the artist in memory of Ishimoto Shigeru, 2009.265 © Ishimoto Yasuhiro



What struck me most about the concepts of SHIBUI was this one-

SHIBUI
simplicity, 
implicitness, 
modesty,
silence, 
naturalness, 
everydayness, 
and
imperfection.




"It may have hidden attainments, but they are not paraded or displayed."
Elizabeth Gordon

 Pauline de Rothschild's Dining Room
 image from NEST magazine winter 98/99


Though Pauline de Rothschild was always seeking perfection in the her very private world -this Dining room is the very essence of Shibui.  Moving beyond the concept in the Japanese interior, de Rothschild's studied imperfections were mastery in shibui.  A great reader- de Rothschild was intrigued by the work of Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima  and in her singular book- The Irrational Journey she writes with the tools of a Shibui Master:

simplicity, 
implicitness, 
modesty,
silence, 
naturalness, 
everydayness, 
and
imperfection.

This concept of hidden attainments - connects seamlessly with the Pauline de Rothschild aesthetic.


Shibui beauty, as in the beauty of Tea Ceremony, is beauty that makes an artist of the viewer."
Elizabeth Gordon


Pauline de Rothschild- Bedroom
image from NEST magazine, Winter 98/99



It seems to me photographers are the most qualified observers of  SHIBUI, whether photographing fashion, architecture or documenting the world around them.


 Henry Clarke captured it in this 1965 photograph of  Veruschka for Vogue.


 simplicity, 
implicitness, 
modesty,
silence, 
naturalness, 
everydayness, 
and
imperfection.


Fellow blogger, Bruce Barone has mastered the Art-this everydayness.
His keen abilities to see the Beauty around him everywhere have struck me as I've followed his blog here.


East Hampton Mass, photograph by Bruce Barone

This is one of Bruce's photograph that interprets the idea of Shibui and seems artistically to be- Shibui perfection. The simplicity of the landscape, the hay field-patched in places & in other places conforming along the line of man's labor. Amidst the field- a cart stands as testament to that labor -yet its design stand in perfect companionship there with nature.




Photo credit: Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Gift of the artist in memory of Ishimoto Shigeru, 2009.265 © Ishimoto Yasuhiro



In today's saturated design field there are pictures, photographs, images, mood boards-especially those where we see heap upon heap of fillers piled on tables- in order to finish a room, photograph a room, sell a product. It's unavoidable really.  
Am I too hard on my chosen field, and its inhabitants of the blogosphere? 
Maybe- but I don't think I'll be changing my mind any time soon, especially with this new idea- SHIBUI- permeating. 
More than ever it seems having an eye that can interpret the past and make it a part of today's world-whether it be Art, Design, Fashion- is key.


My thoughts on the subject led me right to the of the work of Rose Tarlow:





photographs from her book-  The Private House


Here are a few excerpts from her interview with ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST,  it is obvious she is a Master of the ART.


Who or what has influenced my style...Everything I see! I’m influenced especially by nature. A tree influences me. I once said that a tropical fish influences me. I’m influenced by anything that’s natural. There’s a certain cleanliness, an order in the universe, that I try to emulate if I can. 

There are many rules designers and architects should bear in mind. one is...Study. Learn the rules before you break them. I always think that a good artist who does abstract work must also know how to paint in the classical way. In design, learn the classics, study the past, study the great architecture and design of the world, and then draw from all of that your own perspective. 

The mistake most people make when doing their own designing is...Taking themselves too seriously. They get too intense and allow themselves to second-guess. They should take their time and enjoy the process and the end product. Do it slowly.



One of my fellow bloggers- a stylist Thea Beasley has kept faith with this Japanese concept of beauty-elegantly, beautifully, in a most unassuming way-meaning she is a Master:

at  home




simplicity, 
implicitness, 
modesty,
silence, 
naturalness, 
everydayness, 
and
imperfection.



(photographs by Thea Beasley)






Thea- for her client Lacefield Designs
 photographs used with permission

I am going to continue to keep the ideas of  SHIBUI as an ongoing path.


Meditation at Mittineague Park, photograph by Bruce Barone
simplicity, 
implicitness, 
modesty,
silence, 
naturalness, 
everydayness, 
and
imperfection.




SHIBUI is "…beauty with inner implications."
Kiichi Asano/Elizabeth Gordon. Kiichi Asano (1914-1993) - Japanese photographer,
by way of the estate of Elizabeth Gordon (Norcross), editor-in-chief of House Beautiful Magazine from 1941 to 1964.


"It is not a beauty displayed before the viewer by its creator; 
creation here means making a piece that will lead the viewer to draw beauty out of it for oneself.  
Shibui beauty, as in the beauty of Tea Ceremony, 
is beauty that makes an artist of the viewer." 
-Elizabeth Gordon




A Note from Philip Bewley-
The tagline on the cover of the August 1960 House Beautiful issue “Discover Shibui” is not quite correct. Shibui is an adjective, while the noun form is Shibusa. Like the aesthetic concept itself, the translation of shibusa from Japanese to English is nuanced. Perhaps a more satisfactory translation would be:
Beauty = Shibusa (noun)
Beautiful = Shibui (adjective)
Beauty is to Beautiful as Shibusa is to Shibui.


( for the purposes of my thoughts I have held to Elizabeth Gordon's use of the word-she was a Master.) 
House Beautiful.com linked here and in bold type  within the text of the post

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29 comments:

  1. 'Implicitness' is the idea my mind keeps returning to.

    And then 'everydayness'.

    I hope you do keep this as a theme. I think it's an excellent one. Not as a holy tablet but as a reminder to think, at least.

    http://pimpmybricks.wordpress.com

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  2. Good mornong Gaye , just whisked a bowl of green tea and had a lovely long read . Very interesting and beautiful sadly quite a lot of the pictures didnt arrive so ill look again later. I think your comments are VERY appropriate
    Fayx

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  3. Philip's thought-provoking post with your brilliant additions... I will read again + again. 7 words to see by. And, bravo to Bruce's Meditation at Mittineague Park! Thank you PGT. ; )

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  4. Amazing post Patricia. "Cleansing the palate" of today's design aesthetic is a consummate idea. When I read the 'SEVEN QUALIFIERS' & thought how applying those principals to today's design would separate the mediocre designers from the talented ones. Pauline de Rothschild's Dining Room is exquisite and as I get older adapting the idea of less is more seems to really strike a nerve (in a positive way). Thank you (and Philip) for such a magnificent read!

    Cheers ~ Deb

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  5. 'hidden attainments that are not paraded or displayed'... I'll be meditating on that for along time..just beautiful! I love the Ezra Stoller still lifes in particular..that blackberry branch!

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  6. Simply a beautiful and highly interesting post!
    I personal like a 'perfect imperfection'.....

    Thank you very much for sharing, what a brilliant work!
    Greetings from the Périgord,
    karin

    By the way...I placed a link to your blog on my last post: 'little hat parade'

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  7. Thank you for the wonderful post and all the great scans! One of the best blog posts I have read in ages. It's true, we are so inundated with pretty images online that it's hard to sit and digest and mull over and dream, so this is a good reminder to take time, savor, be quiet: "beauty that makes an artist of the viewer".

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  8. Pimp- rouge- glad you agree,I could not imagine 7 more gracious ways to achieve Beauty. I am going to keep my eyes open-It is about what we find personally,our own terms-not the trends or most popular.You have a wonderful venue to discover it as well. pgt

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  9. Fay- I always appreciate your patronage! hope you come back to see it all.

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  10. Barbara- I was so glad that Philip let me share this- I think is it so perfect for the ideas I like to strive for here. I dislike pomposity. I think dog eared is a perfect look at the same things. Bruce is always Looking-seeking-finding.

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  11. Pauline de Rothschild's Dining Room is exquisite- I could not agree more. Sometimes I walk through the house and say-what if I had to live in one room 20 x 20-I see myself there someday, and I will have to get things down to these 7 elements.Philip is such an inspiration to us all!

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  12. 'hidden attainments that are not paraded or displayed'... Me too. the images and the story of Pauline de Rothschild epitomize that to my mind and the idea of what is beautiful to the individual for his own joy. Leaving ostentation behind is where we should head. the Ezra Stoller still lifes are so pretty-I think Thea does it very well in her vignette. pgt

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  13. Fascinating post! I am honoured to be mentioned in it. Thank you kindly! xx T

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  14. Karin- I will go to see what you are working there, and thank you for the link.'perfect imperfection' is something I can strive for-with clients it is a worthy goal- and one that I think is not really attainable it is the effort of seeking it that I work to knowing things are better a little less perfect. pgt

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  15. Dear Gaye,
    It is a thrill to see this here, and you honor me with your inclusion of this on your blog. You expand on the subject, really ran with it, and I love it. The tie in to Pauline de Rothschild is brilliant, and I look at the dining room with a richer understanding. You make the most marvelous connections, and it was a real pleasure to see the work of Bruce Barone and Thea Beasley, the words by Tarlow on nature: those seven qualifiers throughout.
    You are a complete delight, Gaye, and I am honored, and tickled! Thank you so very much.
    Warmly, Philip

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  16. This is beautiful and immensely valuable. I'll carry it around in my head; I wish it were a book I could carry around in my pocket. It reminds me of so much that is important. Curtis

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  17. Thank You for sharing such a beautiful post. Very inspiring. And I am honored that you mention me.

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  18. Thanks for an inspiring posting. I especially like the words

    simplicity,
    implicitness,
    modesty,
    silence,
    naturalness,
    everydayness,
    and
    imperfection.

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  19. This is my third time back here reading. I am leaving a comment primarily so you know I was here - more than once. I especially liked Rose Tarlow's quote about studying the past, the classics and learning the rules - this applies to so many aspects of life!

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  20. What an amazing post - one of the best I can remember reading in a long while. I only wanted to add that the concept of shibui is alive and well in Japan, and that while it does not normally refer to personal behavior, thinking on the post made me realize how much it does inform everyday actions, particularly right now, when things are really difficult here.

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  21. I am thoroughly appreciated all the comments left-

    Scott-with your eye, I know you have seen the world from such a view for years.

    Mark- yes they resound in today's world, many of them quite extinct.

    Curtis-a new mantra from me-a new way to explain things that matter most.

    Q- I am so glad you've returned. I think Rose Tarlow is exemplary in our design world today.

    Bruce- I so enjoy your work and blog-as I said in the post, you have mastered this idea of beauty.

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  22. Philip- All compliments to you and your vision and your "knowing" I am inspired by so much of what you bring to your work, and am enriched by it. Thank you for letting me reprint it here. Gaye

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  23. Tokyojinja- I am so honored to get your comments on the post- and glad to know the concept of shibui is alive and well.I think we can all take the idea to heart, gather the ideas within ourselves and try to stay grounded to what matters.Your nation's time honored traditions have and will survive and triumph again-no doubt. Some of the old ways with the new are what we should all strive for in the world of fleeting information and inspiration, it can all be gone too quickly.Gaye

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  24. Ms. P. -- what a thought-provoking post. thank you for your efforts putting this out. i thoroughly enjoyed that.

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  25. Dear Ms. Tapp,

    I am a historian currently working on a manuscript about the popularity of Japanese culture in the 1950s and came across this post on an image search for the Shibui issue of House Beautiful. I cite the Aug/ Sept 1960 issues extensively in my work, but had not heard until I read this essay about how popular these particular issues were. Since I'm arguing for the widespread popularity of Japanese design, this information could only strengthen my argument. Do you know where Mr. Bewley found the information about the magazine selling out and attracting large amounts of appreciative mail? If I could track down his original source, it might contain even more information that would be valuable to my project. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Meghan, If you would email me-tish209@gmail.com I will pass your query on to Philip who is an extremely knowledgable resource- I will then have your email and send it to him. He is very good about getting back on things-pgt

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  26. I spent 5 months in Japan after my wedding in July of 1959. I fell in love with the architecture, art, and gardens. I bought some antique woodblock prints and other lamps, and furniture from Korea and returned to the states with my Air Force husband. Then I bought the August 1960 issue of House Beautiful and studied the Shibui conception. A friend gave me the September issue which tells "How to be Shibui with American things." Later, we bought a lovely lot on a lake in Florida with a nice slope, and in 1971 built a Japanese looking house from a house plan purchased from, I think, the 1960 issue by an architect, I think, AA Barr. Then my second husband built me a lovely Japanese garden with Koi Ponds and bridges. No Tea House Yet.
    I have tried to keep the Shibui ambiance for over 50 years. It is quiet-delicate-peaceful-artful. I love it.

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    Replies
    1. Cindi, that is so interesting thank you for sharing your experience with a lifetime of the Shibui aesthetic. I would love to see your house, any photos? It is a beautiful way to live. This is one of my favorite postings of many.

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