This new online exhibition focuses attention on the material culture of Micronesian and Melanesian communities and Paul Jacoulet’s portraits of these communities. The exhibition focuses on USC PAM’s vast collection of Pacific Island objects, centering on the artifacts of Vanuatu, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Palau, Caroline Islands, and the Solomon Islands to bring visibility to each locality. These objects will be contrasted with Jacoulet’s colorful woodcut portraits of a few of these islands to bring a Western 20th-century view of these cultures. The purpose of contrasting these objects is to provide alternative visions of the Pacific Islands. Paul Jacoulet’s colorful portraits provide insight into his understanding of the individuals in these communities and their creations. Contrasting his portraits with the material objects provides a broader vision of who these communities are, how they are perceived by the Western world, and what they produced. 

Look at the map above to see some of the art featured in this exhibition and where they originated. 

Paul Jacoulet

“As his name indicates, Jacoulet is a Frenchman, but by temperament and education he is Japanese.” –Yone Noguchi

Paul Jacoulet was born January 23, 1896, in Paris, France then moved with his family to Tokyo, Japan in 1900. He lived in Japan for most of his life and attended Japanese primary, middle, and high school becoming fluent in Japanese. At the same time, he attended private tutoring by professional instructors including his fathers’ assistant, Eitaro Mochizuki, who introduced him to ukiyo-e woodblock prints. From an early age, Jacoulet showed an interest in drawing and drew his first picture when he was only three years old. He had his first lesson when he was 11 years old at the White Horse Institute with well-known artists and teachers Kiyoteru Kuroda and Keiichiro Kume. He also had famous tutors such as Matsu Takeda and the wife of Yone Noguchi, who taught the young Jacoulet English and Shakespeare. Moreover, at the Noguchi home, Jacoulet got the chance to see woodblock prints by Kitagawa Utamaro that sparked his lifelong interest in Utamaro’s art style and ukiyo-e.

During his lifetime Paul Jacoulet produced around 30,000 woodblock prints and several hundred watercolors. He draws from two artistic traditions of 19^th-century European painting and 18^th-century Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printing. His works were described as “thoroughly Japanese” and “even among Japanese artists he stands out” stated Japanese artist and woodblock carver Kazuo Yamagishi. His portraits of the Pacific Islands and Asia are heralded as a representation of a disappearing paradise. His attention to detail in his depictions of clothing, adornments, and physiognomy provides a record of ethnographic and historical images.

Much of his work reflects a sense of sadness and premature aging in his subjects. This is especially seen in his Pacific Islands works. Biographers estimate he conducted annual trips to the Pacific from 1929 to 1936 and produced thousands of portraits and watercolors of his travels.

The Story of the Pacific Islands

About 50,000 years ago, the world’s first seafarers from Southeast Asia began traveling eastward in two distinct voyaging periods and began populating the islands of the Pacific. They first explored the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, and Australia that were closer together and easier to travel. Then around 1200 BCE, with more sophisticated navigational and food-producing technologies, groups began to migrate farther eastward toward more remote islands such as Hawai’i and Rapa Nui. These voyagers brought with them mammals and plants such as breadfruit, taro, sugarcane, and yams that became important subsistence across the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean has around 25,000 islands, 25 million people, and hundreds of languages and dialects. The islands are made up of distinct cultural areas known as Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Each cultural area has unique artistic styles and traditions.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, European explorers from Spain, Portugal, England, and other European countries began to navigate and chart the Pacific, marking the first encounters between Pacific Islanders and the Western world. From the 1500s to the 1900s these European countries began establishing colonies and sending missionaries across the Pacific Islands to control trade routes to Asia and gain political power. The introduction of Christian missionaries and colonial rule had lasting impacts on Pacific Islanders’ way of life, belief systems, and culture as many communities were forced to stop practicing their religions and speaking their languages. In present day, many of these islands are still under the political and economic control of Western nations including the United States. There are large sovereignty and self-determination movements all over the Pacific seeking economic and political autonomy. Moreover, there have been large cultural revitalization movements throughout the Pacific toward regenerating traditional knowledge, practices, language, and art.