TAB Event - "The Golden Age of Color Prints: Ukiyo-e from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" Exhibition

"The Golden Age of Color Prints: Ukiyo-e from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" Exhibition

This event has ended.
At Yamatane Museum of Art
Media: Prints

Boston, a city rich in history on the east coast of the United States, is home to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which opened in 1876, the first centennial of American independence. The museum, a temple of beauty, has a collection of about 450,000 works of art, ancient to contemporary, from throughout the world. Its collection of Japanese art, built by Boston intellectuals enthralled by the arts of Japan, including Edward Morse (1838-1925), Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), and William Bigelow (1850-1926), is acclaimed for its breadth and depth. In particular, its collection of about 50,000 ukiyo-e prints, which comprise the largest part of the Japanese art collection, 700 brush-drawn ukiyo-e paintings, and several thousand woodblock printed books are unrivaled in quality and quantity among collections outside Japan. This magnificent collection had, however, almost never been displayed even at the Museum of Fine Arts itself until recently, given the vast number of works it includes and conservation issues. The long-awaited exhibition of works from the collection, rare examples of ukiyo-e in an excellent state of preservation with the colors as vivid as when they were first printed, is exciting interest throughout the world.

This exhibition focuses on one part of that vast collection, from what is regarded as the golden age of color prints, the Tenmei and Kansei eras (1781-1801). It introduces a select group of works mainly by three masters of that golden age, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, and Sharaku. Almost all of the works are being shown in Japan for the first time since their acquisition by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After this exhibition ends, these works will not be displayed again for five years; please do take this opportunity to enjoy them.

Schedule

From 2011-02-26 To 2011-04-17

Artist(s)

Kiyonaga Torii, Utamaro Kitagawa, Sharaku Toshusai et al.

Community around this event

5 people recommend this event: yukko_matsumoto (japan), bugbear666666 (Japan), snails, and 2 others

Reviews

zoo57: (2011-03-04)

Great prints but this is not the place to see them. The gallery is arranged like a corridor snaking underground. It's very crowded, and there are very few lockers so quite a few people are carrying coats, bags, even rucksacks! It's rather like shuffling through a crowded tunnel to catch a train with some good art on the walls doing its best to distract you, oh, with people hawking books at either end of the line. Nowhere to take a have a quick sit down, backtracking is discouraged. A bit grim really. What a shame. And 1300 yen too. The exhibits, and the punters deserve a better venue. Boston, it ain't.

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