Japan’s First Retrospective of Karl Walser
Karl Walser’s paintings have a strange, dreamlike pull to them — somewhere between symbolism and storybook, with a touch of melancholy underneath. Much of his work emerged in Berlin, where he was part of the Secession, a group of artists pushing back against the stiffness of academic painting at the time. But painting was only one part of what he did. He also illustrated books, designed sets and costumes for the theater and spent his later years working on murals.
In 1908, Walser traveled to Japan and spent several months sketching whatever caught his eye — kabuki actors, summer riverside platforms in Kyoto, the Gion Festival in full swing. Many of those watercolors have rarely been seen in public, and the colors are still startlingly fresh. This is the first retrospective in Japan of Walser, bringing together around 150 works.
