The important elements of oil painting are the artist's intention, composition, drawing, color, touch, and matière. These six elements are important regardless of the genre of painting (figurative, abstract, landscape, portrait, or biological). The elements that Japanese painters consider important are different from those that French painters consider important.
Let's talk about the painter's intention here. When a professional French painter paints, the painter's intention comes first. In other words, the first thing to consider is what kind of painting he or she wants to paint. This part is related to the painter's inspiration. It is more about the painter's talent, education, and imagination than the painter's skill. Of course, the painter's ability (drawing ability, color composition ability, etc.) to realize the intention is essential, and it is also true that one can only imagine it if one has confidence in one's skills. What kind of painting to paint is not about the subject, the subject to be painted, or what one wants to express, but about what kind of painting one intends to make. Naturally, one imagines the overall picture of the painting while taking into consideration the subject, what one wants to express, and the subject to be painted.
The idea differs depending on the artist and the painting. For example, you may want to paint a bouquet with a bright atmosphere. From there, the artist's inspiration comes into play. You think about how to paint it, how to make the viewer understand, how to entertain, and how to shock them. It may be difficult to understand, but that is the artist's intention in painting the painting. It requires a rich imagination. Japanese critics often talk about the state of mind of a mature artist, or say meaningless things like the artist's sharp gaze has captured it. They try to read the artist's outlook on life and emotions from the painting.
And instead of criticizing paintings, he writes biographies of painters. French painters are gods. They create their own world on the canvas in front of them. It is a world that is different from their own, while being closely intertwined with their own outlook on life and emotions. That is the painter's intention. That is why French painters seem to be able to tell at a glance between a painting they have made and one made by a craftsman. You can see a clear intention in a painting made by a painter. A craftsman simply paints. Even if a painting made by a craftsman is well made, has a mature state of mind, or has lyricism, you cannot read the painter's intention from it.
Therefore, it is impossible for a professional French painter to study under another painter and paint the same kind of painting. Because it is the divine painter's job to realize his intentions on the canvas. Even if you learn other people's techniques, you cannot imitate their intentions and inspiration. If you were to realize another painter's intentions on your own canvas, that would no longer be the work of a painter but a craftsman. It's not that craftsmen are bad, they are a respectable profession. And respectable craftsmen support various industries. But in the French sense, painters are not craftsmen. I think this is the main reason why paintings by Japanese people are hardly appreciated in France.
It is enough if the things made by craftsmen are simply beautiful, but paintings are different. The cherry blossoms, temples in Kyoto, and Mt. Fuji painted by Japanese painters may be beautiful, but they are all the same. From the point of view of French painters, they are not painters but artisans of painting. Also, if the cherry blossoms, Mt. Fuji, and shrines and temples they paint look beautiful to Japanese people, it is probably the power of tradition rather than the power of the painter.
Groups of Japanese painters often exhibit at salons in France or hold group exhibitions in France. French people are sociable and have goodwill and respect for Japanese people, so they are quite friendly, but they capture the essence of painting well. They say that most of the paintings are amateur. One of our painters, M, came to Japan for an exhibition at a department store in a local city. Of course, M also went to the exhibition. At the same time, another French painter was having an exhibition at the same department store. M is famous in France, so the painter came and asked M to see his paintings. M went to see them, was friendly, and said something inoffensive like, "I'd be happy to meet you again somewhere."
Later, M told me in secret, "They are paintings by artisans. You can't see the artist's intention in any of them. They're just painting. But they're terrible. Maybe he didn't paint them himself, but had a professional artisan do them." Of course, this wasn't actually investigated, and there's no evidence. M was just quietly telling me his opinion as a professional painter. A professional artisan and a professional painter are different.
Film directors have their own intentions. However, no matter how much experience they have or how skilled they are, the people involved in filmmaking other than the director are professional craftsmen. They are a group of professional craftsmen who realize the intentions of the film director. Japanese films are also very popular in France. Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and anime director Hayao Miyazaki are overwhelmingly popular and respected. Other high-quality Japanese films by Kenji Mizoguchi, Kohei Oguri, and Banmei Takahashi are also well understood and have many fans. Every film is full of the originality of the director and the film-like qualities of that director. In other words, the intentions of each director are clearly evident in the work. There is an emotion that only that work can give. Each work has an emotion that no other work can give.
Just as a painter creates his own world on a canvas according to his own will, film directors, novelists and other artists are all solitary gods who create works according to their own will. The moment their works move people, the gods are released from their loneliness and regain their connection with humans.