Neo-Japonism in France, 1945-1975

Conference by Michael LUCKEN, art historian, professor at INALCO and Sophie BASCH, Professor at the Faculty of Letters of Sorbonne University.

Japonism revolutionized 19th-century aesthetics. But what remains of Japan's aesthetic influence after Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In this presentation, Sophie Basch and Michael Lucken, who edited the book on the subject published by Hermann in 2025, will show how neo-Japanism is traversed by two currents: one that refuses to follow in the footsteps of historical Japonism and plays the card of purity and liberating violence; the other, more subtly subversive, which instead plays on continuity in an ironic approach that multiplies filters and quotations.