2013 / LACMA to debut national-treasure-class Okyo screens in US, Jan 19

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents the U.S. debut of Maruyama Okyo’s Cranes (1772), an extraordinary pair of Japanese screens on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013 at its Pavilion for Japanese Art.

The exhibition of Okyo’s Cranes will run for four month. The closing date is not announced yet.

The screens was recently acquired by the museum’s Curator of Japanese Art, Robert T. Singer. Maruyama Okyo (1733-95) is pivotal to Japanese art history for being one of the first artists to paint directly from nature rather than from paintings and sketches.

The pair of screens together measure five and a half feet tall and twenty-two feet long. Depicted are seventeen cranes, twelve of one species (Red-crowned Cranes), five of another (White-naped Cranes), which are shown resting, sleeping, nestling, and peering into the distance.

Of Okyo’s five most famous pairs of screens, four are registered National Treasures by the Japanese government and may therefore never leave Japan except on lone.

Only these legendary screens remain unregistered, and on Feb. 22, 2011 after two-year campaign by Singer, the Ministry of Culture of Japan granted an official export license to LACMA for the opportunity to acquire these screens.

This honor was granted in recognition of the growing importance of LACMA’s Pavilion for Japanese Art and its collections, and in the hope that Americans and Europeans can thereby appreciate the very highest achievement in the history of Japanese painting.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (323) 857-600. lacma.org

Closed Wednesday. General admissions are $15 for adults. Free general admission after 3 pm for Los Angeles County residents from Monday – Friday, and on the second Tuesday of each month.