Dr Anna Basham
TrAIN Core Member - AHRC Fellow for the Forgotten Japonisme project
Wells Coates (Arch.) 10 Palace Gate, Kensington 1939. Photograph Anna Basham, October 2003
I was born and educated in the UK, but for long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the Far East. I trained as a fashion designer at Epsom School of Art and Design, now part of the University for the Creative Arts, where I specialised in knitwear design. I found inspiration in Japanese textile design, as I was intrigued by the use of space, subject matter and design repetition.
Unable to undertake a practiced based MA, I chose to look at others who had been inspired by Japan. I started my research in the Victorian heyday of Japonisme, by examining the work of Christopher Dresser, but quickly realised that the story of Japonisme did not end with the 19th century. I was certain that Japan had been an inspirational source on Art Deco and I sought to illustrate the significance of Japanese art and design in the development of Art Deco by examining the motifs, patterns, and design details present in British suburban housing of the 1920s and 1930s. I received an MA in Three Dimensional Design from the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Rochester, now also part of the University of the Creative Arts, for my dissertation: ‘The denial of influence: Japan and British Design 1919-1939’.
It was whilst researching for the MA project that I came across the architect-engineer, Wells Coates, who cited the traditional Japanese domestic dwelling as an inspirational source. Coates was a significant figure within the British modern movement, which prompted my first PhD research question: Was Japan an inspirational source for British modernism? I completed my PhD ‘From Victorian to Modernist: the changing perceptions of Japanese architecture encapsulated in Wells Coates’ Japonisme dovetailing East and West’ at the University of the Arts London in 2008.
On 1 October 2007 I became an AHRC Research Fellow for the project, Forgotten Japonisme: The Taste for Japanese Art in Britain and the USA 1920s-1950s. This three year, AHRC-funded project was awarded to Professor Toshio Watanabe, Director of the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN), Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London.
Related Projects
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Forgotten Japonisme
Led by TrAIN Director Professor Toshio Watanabe, Forgotten Japonisme is a major three year research project funded by the AHRC. Between October 2007 and October 2010, this project will explore a previously neglected period in the study of Western attitudes towards Japanese art: from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Find out more about Forgotten Japonisme
Related People
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Rebecca Salter
TrAIN Core Member - Research Fellow
I was born and educated in the UK and after studying for a BA in Three Dimensional Design at Bristol Polytechnic I spent two years as a research student at Kyoto City University of Arts, Japan. After leaving the university I lived in Japan for a further 4 years working in my studio and exhibiting while researching traditional crafts such as papermaking and Japanese woodblock.
Find out more about Rebecca Salter -
Dr Yuko Kikuchi
TrAIN Core Member - Reader
I was born in Tokyo and educated in Japan, the USA and UK. After completing a BA in English and American literature and an MA in American Studies, I worked at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, and during this period I began my research in craft and design history.
Find out more about Dr Yuko Kikuchi -
Professor Toshio Watanabe
TrAIN Core Member - Director
I grew up in a transnational environment. My father is Japanese and my mother German from Transylvania in Romania.
Find out more about Professor Toshio Watanabe -
Piotr Splawski
Current PhD - AHRC Studentship for the project Forgotten Japonisme
Piotr Splawski has recently commenced his PhD research after being awarded the AHRC Studentship attached to the TrAIN project Forgotten Japonisme. In common with research being carried out by others involved in this project, he aims to challenge a widely accepted, yet tacit, conviction that negative attitudes towards Japan in the West between 1920 and 1960 inhibited the development of the taste for Japan.
Find out more about Piotr Splawski -
Helena Capkova
Current PhD - Interpreting Japan : Central European Architecture and Design 1920 – 1940
Central Europe has historically been an area with rich cultural networks and significant centres such as Prague, Berlin or Vienna. These centres were cultural melting pots with multilingual and multicultural environments accommodating a mixture of nationalities.
Find out more about Helena Capkova -
Julian Stair
TrAIN Core Member - Research Fellow
Julian Stair is a potter and writer, his doctoral research concerned the critical origins of English studio pottery, and in 2004 he received a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship to research the making of monumental work in a Staffordshire brick factory. He is one of four core members of TrAIN now working on the ARHC project Forgotten Japonisme.
Find out more about Julian Stair
