User talk:Meaghanmoth/sandbox

Overview

Eugenie Jubin, known professionally as Eugenie O’Kin, was a French and Japanese artist born in Yokohama on May 13th, 1880 and deceased in Nice in 1948. Known for her work with ivory and ceramics, O’Kin introduced traditional Japanese craft into the field of modernist sculpture, for which she was celebrated by a public enamored with her refined exoticism.

Early Life

Eugenie O’Kin was born to a Japanese mother (Yamanaka Tama) and a French father (Charles Marie Jubin), a businessman who emigrated to Japan around 1870 in order to establish a silk trade for the family business, while his brother Emile managed the business from Paris and gained prominence as an oriental art collector. Growing up in this environment of cross-cultural exchange through her family’s involvement in trading artisanal goods, young Eugenie reciprocated her uncle’s fascination with art which her parents encouraged. She found inspiration through copying patterns she found in textiles, ceramics, or prints and then distorted them to create her own monochromatic drawings rendered in fluid, expressive line. Through the support of her family, she was able to attend Dames de St Maur de Yokohama, the only French school in the city, where she could further her artistic instruction and solidify her bilingual abilities.

Discovery in Paris

Shortly after the death of her father and the completion of her education, Eugenie O’Kin made the decision to travel to Paris in 1900 to study her craft under the tutelage of designer and sculptor Henri Hamm, which would prove to be the catalyst for her emergence into the greater art scene. While working with Hamm, O’Kin was introduced to another young artist on the rise, sculptor Henri Simmen, who she would later marry. It is probable that as the two studied together, O’Kin taught Simmen Asian ceramic techniques which would set his work apart from his French contemporaries. After studying for six years, she exhibited her work for the first time in 1906 at the Salon L’Automne, and then again at the Salons of the French National Society of Fine Arts. At the 1910 Salon, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs of Paris bought one of her pieces, a cup made of an engraved animal horn and decorated with pearl and silver, to be a part of their permanent collection. Met with great success, O’Kin would continue to participate in the salon scene of Paris until the start of the First World War.

Travels in Asia

With her new husband, Eugenie traveled throughout Asia from 1919-1921. While the initial intention of the trip was to visit Eugenie’s brother, Henri-Emille Jubin, in Angkor, the couple extended their journey after becoming fascinated with native Cambodian or Khmer art. They continued their travels in China, Korea, and finally Japan where Henri would continue his study of traditional pottery techniques as Eugenie had once been taught. These visits left a lasting mark on both artists, whose creations would reveal deep influences from other Asian traditions, particularly that of the Khmer tradition.

Return to France

After returning to France in 1921, the couple moved to the Montredon district of Marseille, the port of arrival for rubber and other imports from Asia, in 1923. It is here that Henri and Eugenie founded their new workshop under the resolve to solely use traditional artisanal methods in the creation of their work, a direct departure from the practices of their colleagues who now wished to dissociate the design from the manual realization of the object. With these intentions of preserving traditional ways of making art, the two were great collaborators, Eugenie making ivory lids and stoppers to adorn Henri’s ceramic pieces, in addition to her own work. She would also act as a supplier of ivory and other precious materials to renowned designers of her time, such as Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann. The two would also enter into a collaboration, O’Kin providing materials for his exhibitions in return for an opportunity to have her work presented in his Collector’s Hotel during the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts.