(See English below)

Am 17. September 2026 laden wir ab 18 Uhr zum Onlinevortrag von Svitlana Shiells ein, der unter dem Titel „Gustav Klimt and Hokusai: Reframing Japonisme in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna“ der Verbindung zwischen Gustav Klimt und Katsushika Hokusai auf den Grund geht und zeigt, wie tief die japanische Kunst das Schaffen des Wiener Secessionisten geprägt hat.

In fin-de-siècle Vienna, Japonisme became a Zeitgeist, and Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was its most fervent advocate. Focusing on Klimt’s engagement with Japan, Svitlana Shiell’s research demonstrates that he not only collected Japanese art but also diligently and continuously studied it as a scholar. Accordingly, as Klaus Berger aptly observed: “there is hardly another artist who owes his self-realization to Japanese art as Klimt does; for without this particular note Klimt would not be Klimt.”

During the 1890s, Klimt developed a particular interest in ukiyo-e prints, especially the works of Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The main Secessionist had numerous opportunities to examine Hokusai’s original prints and books, which were exhibited in Vienna in 1900, 1901, and 1903, as well as reproductions featured in a wide range of contemporary publications. A close analysis of Klimt’s oeuvre suggests that he carefully studied (and possibly even owned) some of Hokusai’s books, most notably One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji and the Hokusai Manga.

Generally speaking, the Hokusai Manga informed the West about Japan better and in a more fascinating manner than any travelogue and provided the most diverse source material for Western artists. Its impact on the latter was so overwhelming that, as one scholar put it, “one might be tempted to conclude that it was the only specimen of Japanese pictorial art available at the time.” Hokusai’s set was likely the source of ideas that enabled Klimt to develop witty and original compositions, exemplified by works such as Water Serpents I, Water Serpents II, Jurisprudence, Water Nymphs (Silverfishes), Danaë, Leda, and others.

Svitlana Shiell’s research further demonstrates that Klimt possessed an exceptional familiarity not only with Hokusai’s books and prints but also with his shunga. Providing Klimt with a broad range of formal ideas and even some motifs, Hokusai’s art remained a continual reference throughout his career. In short, while Klimt’s artistic pendulum inexorably oscillated between East and West, any rigorous analysis of Klimt’s oeuvre must account for the centrality of Japanese art—including Hokusai’s work—within his creative trajectory. Without doing so, it is impossible to grasp the intellectual depth, sophistication, and formal intricacies of Klimt’s oeuvre or his unprecedented ability to bridge East and West, ancient and modern.

Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.

Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem Mastodon-Account und BlueSky an.

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On 17 September 2026, from 6 pm, we invite you to an online lecture by Svitlana Shiells, entitled “Gustav Klimt and Hokusai: Reframing Japonisme in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna”, which explores the connection between Gustav Klimt and Katsushika Hokusai and demonstrates the profound influence that Japanese art had on the work of the Viennese Secessionist.

In fin-de-siècle Vienna, Japonisme became a Zeitgeist, and Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was its most fervent advocate. Focusing on Klimt’s engagement with Japan, Svitlana Shiell’s research demonstrates that he not only collected Japanese art but also diligently and continuously studied it as a scholar. Accordingly, as Klaus Berger aptly observed: “there is hardly another artist who owes his self-realization to Japanese art as Klimt does; for without this particular note Klimt would not be Klimt.”

During the 1890s, Klimt developed a particular interest in ukiyo-e prints, especially the works of Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The main Secessionist had numerous opportunities to examine Hokusai’s original prints and books, which were exhibited in Vienna in 1900, 1901, and 1903, as well as reproductions featured in a wide range of contemporary publications. A close analysis of Klimt’s oeuvre suggests that he carefully studied (and possibly even owned) some of Hokusai’s books, most notably One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji and the Hokusai Manga.

Generally speaking, the Hokusai Manga informed the West about Japan better and in a more fascinating manner than any travelogue and provided the most diverse source material for Western artists. Its impact on the latter was so overwhelming that, as one scholar put it, “one might be tempted to conclude that it was the only specimen of Japanese pictorial art available at the time.” Hokusai’s set was likely the source of ideas that enabled Klimt to develop witty and original compositions, exemplified by works such as Water Serpents I, Water Serpents II, Jurisprudence, Water Nymphs (Silverfishes), Danaë, Leda, and others.

Svitlana Shiell’s research further demonstrates that Klimt possessed an exceptional familiarity not only with Hokusai’s books and prints but also with his shunga. Providing Klimt with a broad range of formal ideas and even some motifs, Hokusai’s art remained a continual reference throughout his career. In short, while Klimt’s artistic pendulum inexorably oscillated between East and West, any rigorous analysis of Klimt’s oeuvre must account for the centrality of Japanese art—including Hokusai’s work—within his creative trajectory. Without doing so, it is impossible to grasp the intellectual depth, sophistication, and formal intricacies of Klimt’s oeuvre or his unprecedented ability to bridge East and West, ancient and modern.

The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.

You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on Mastodon and BlueSky.

*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.

(See English below)

Am 26. Oktober 2026 ab 18 Uhr (Berliner Zeit) laden wir herzlich zu einem Onlinevortrag ein, in dem PD Dr. Philipp Kohl (LMU München) eine ebenso unerwartete wie aufschlussreiche Episode der Wissenschaftsgeschichte beleuchtet. In „Counter-Revolutionary Dinosaurs“: A Popular History of the Gobi Paleontological Expeditions under Socialism stellt Philipp Kohl vor, wie Dinosaurierfunde in der Wüste Gobi zwischen sowjetischer Ideologie, mongolischer Literatur und polnischem Forschungsehrgeiz zum Politikum wurden.

Der Vortrag bietet einen Überblick über die Geschichte der Wüste Gobi als Schauplatz paläontologischer Ausstellungen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf Wissenschaftlern aus sozialistischen Ländern, insbesondere aus der Sowjetunion und Polen, liegt. Ausgangspunkt ist die Feststellung, dass diese Geschichte nicht als eine Geschichte wissenschaftlicher Expeditionen begann, sondern als literarische Geschichte. Nach Roy Chapman Andrews’ sensationeller Entdeckung der ersten Dinosauriereier im Jahr 1923 erlebte die sowjetische Kultur ihren ersten „Dinosaurier-Boom“, lange vor dem Start der ersten mongolischen paläontologischen Expedition der Akademie der Wissenschaften im Jahr 1946. Obwohl der Expeditionsleiter, Ivan Efremov, einer der produktivsten sowjetischen Science-Fiction-Autoren war, verfasste er keine fiktionalen Texte über die Gobi-Expeditionen. Sein Reisebericht „Straße der Winde“ aus dem Jahr 1956 ist eher trockene Lektüre. Das Moskauer Paläontologische Museum, dem nach dem Aufbau der mongolischen Dinosaurierskelette der Platz ausgegangen war, blieb zwischen 1954 und 1987 für die Öffentlichkeit geschlossen.

Um zu erklären, warum Dinosaurier unter Stalin nicht besonders beliebt waren, wird der Vortrag nicht nur die politischen Zwänge der Paläontologie zu Beginn des Kalten Krieges in der Mongolischen Volksrepublik beleuchten, einer umkämpften geopolitischen Zone zwischen der UdSSR und China. Er wird auch die (Nicht-)Rezeption der sowjetischen Expedition im ersten sozialistischen Roman der mongolischen Literatur, Chadraabalyn Lodoidambas „Im Altai“ (1951), erörtern. Außerdem werden die sowjetischen Forscher mit ihren polnischen Nachfolgern der 1960er Jahre unter Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska verglichen, deren Ergebnisse in Ausstellungen, Filmen und einem Dinosaurierpark einer breiten Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht wurden.

Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.

Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem Mastodon-Account und BlueSky an.

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On 26 October 2026 from 6 pm (Berlin time), we cordially invite you to an online lecture in which PD Dr Philipp Kohl (LMU Munich) will shed light on an episode in the history of science that is as unexpected as it is revealing. In “Counter-Revolutionary Dinosaurs”: A Popular History of the Gobi Paleontological Expeditions under Socialism, Dr Kohl will explain how dinosaur discoveries in the Gobi Desert became a political issue caught between Soviet ideology, Mongolian literature and Polish research ambition.

The talk will offer a popular history of the Gobi desert as a site for paleotological exhibitions with a focus on scientists from socialist countries, particularly the Soviet Union and Poland. It will depart from the observation that this story did not begin as one of scientific expeditions but as a literary history. After Roy Chapman Andrews’s sensational discovery of the first dinosaur eggs in 1923, Soviet culture experienced its first dinosaur rush, long before the launch of the first Mongolian Paleontological Expedition of the Academy of Science in 1946. Although the expedition leader, Ivan Efremov, was one of the most prolific Soviet writers of science fiction, he did not write any fictional accounts about the Gobi expeditions. His 1956 travelogue Road of Winds makes rather dry reading. And the Moscow Paleontological Museum, having run out of space after assembling the Mongolian dinosaur skeletons, stayed closed to the public between 1954 and 1987.

In order to explain why dinosaurs were not particularly popular under Stalin, the talk will not only look at the political constraints of paleontology at the onset of the Cold War in the Mongolian People’s Republic, a contested geopolitical zone between the USSR and China. It will also discuss the Soviet expedition’s (non-)reception in the first socialist novel of Mongolian literature, Chadraabalyn Lodoidamba’s In the Altai (1951). And it will compare the Soviet researchers to their 1960s Polish successors under Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, whose results were widely popularized in exhibitions, films, and a dinosaur park.

The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.

You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on Mastodon and BlueSky.

*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.

(See English below)

Am 3. Dezember 2026 ab 18 Uhr (Berliner Zeit) laden wir zu unserem letzten CrossAsia Talk im Jahr 2026 ein: Joshua A. Fogel (York University, Kanada) beleuchtet in seinem Onlinevortrag „Back to Babel: The Esperanto Movements in Japan and China“ die faszinierende Geschichte der Esperanto-Bewegung in Ostasien und ihre ganz unterschiedlichen Entwicklungen in Japan und China im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Seien Sie dabei!

In the first decades of the 20^th century, the movement to spread use of a universal language for all mankind came to East Asia. Launched by Ludwik Zamenhof in Warsaw in 1887, Japan and China proved to be fertile ground for the Esperanto movement. However, Zamenhof purposefully constructed Esperanto as an auxiliary language, never meant to replace natural languages, but only to facilitate communication among the peoples and alleviate all misunderstanding, leading to world peace. In East Asia, different political and social movements hooked up with it and lead to interesting eventualities. In the first decade of the 20^th century, some Chinese saw it as a panacea for China’s decrepit state (as they saw things) and wanted it to replace Chinese altogether; this led to ferocious debates involved people in Paris, Tokyo, and even China. In Japan, a wide array of scholars, anarchists, socialists, feminists, and others saw it as a way for Japan to merge with the grand movement uniting the world via a shared language. From the middle of the second decade, things changed in both countries. In interested, come hear this talk!

Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.

Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem Mastodon-Account und BlueSky an.

—

On 3 December 2026 from 6 pm (Berlin time), we invite you to our final CrossAsia Talk of 2026: In his online lecture “Back to Babel: The Esperanto Movements in Japan and China”, Joshua A. Fogel (York University, Canada) will shed light on the fascinating history of the Esperanto movement in East Asia and its very different developments in Japan and China in the early 20th century. Join us!

In the first decades of the 20^th century, the movement to spread use of a universal language for all mankind came to East Asia. Launched by Ludwik Zamenhof in Warsaw in 1887, Japan and China proved to be fertile ground for the Esperanto movement. However, Zamenhof purposefully constructed Esperanto as an auxiliary language, never meant to replace natural languages, but only to facilitate communication among the peoples and alleviate all misunderstanding, leading to world peace. In East Asia, different political and social movements hooked up with it and lead to interesting eventualities. In the first decade of the 20^th century, some Chinese saw it as a panacea for China’s decrepit state (as they saw things) and wanted it to replace Chinese altogether; this led to ferocious debates involved people in Paris, Tokyo, and even China. In Japan, a wide array of scholars, anarchists, socialists, feminists, and others saw it as a way for Japan to merge with the grand movement uniting the world via a shared language. From the middle of the second decade, things changed in both countries. In interested, come hear this talk!

The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.

You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on Mastodon-Account and BlueSky.

*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.