The JAPAN 1967-69 exhibition shows a selection of twenty-eight works from the sketchbooks Jessel filled during the year he spent living and working in Japan.

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In 1966, aged 26, he decided to leave his job as Resident Young Artist at Bryanston School to travel for a year around the Indian sub-continent and South-East Asia, studying religious sites, architecture, art, music, dance and tribal cultures. Then in 1967 he travelled around Japan, before finally settling to live, work and paint in Tokyo.

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The work from this period reveals the striking degree of experimentation that resulted from his immersion in Japanese culture. Black and white explorations into traditional sumi-e art, using sumi ink, motifs and calligraphy brushes, blend with Jessel's own emerging and distinctive style. Delicate works in pencil and pen reflect the minimalism and refinement of the Japaese aesthetic. Vivid works in gouache echo Japanese prints, textiles and the landscape itself, cross-fertilised with the energy of contemporary Western abstract art. Interposed between these are several predominantly monochrome pieces that transgressively and imaginatively break with sumi-e strictures with the incorporation of flashes of colour, the addition of pen or the bleeding of inks.

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The techniques learnt and experiences absorbed during the artist's time in late '60s Japan have echoed through his work ever since and can still be seen some fifty years later in his Memory series 2011-19, shown here in 40 MEMORIES and MEMORY COLLECTION.

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Archibald Sude

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