L’univers flottant de Paul Jacoulet, un artiste voyageur en Micronésie

Here is another French artist, who like Bernard Buffet, is better known in Japan than in his own country. It is true that Paul Jacoulet -1896-1960- was the son of a French professor who taught in Tokyo, where he arrived at the age of three, and he lived longer in Asia than in Paris. He was an international traveller who led expeditions between 1929 and 1933 to the islands of Micronesia and immortalized their tatoos and traditional wear before they lost all meaning and became simple tourist attractions. In 1933 he founded an engraving workshop presenting himself as the heir of Hiroshige and Hokusai in the demanding discipline of ukyo-e, wood engraving. Every year he produced a series of prints of flowers, butterflies, beautiful courtesans and respectable elderly men, which collectors faught over avidly. The catalogue describes the production of this interpreter of a colored and refined Far-East. It is also the catalogue for an exhibition and an important donation to the museum of Quai Branly. Maybe Jacoulet who is appreciated in the USA, will finally step out of his French purgatory.

• L’univers flottant de Paul Jacoulet, un artiste voyageur en Micronésie, directed by Christian Polak and Kiyoko Sawatari, publication Somogy/musée du quai Branly, 2013, 354 p., €49