2016 / Screens, Scrolls, and Prints: Japanese Art from LACMA’s Collection, 2015 Oct. 18 – 2016 Mar. 20

School of Hishikawa Moronobu (early –mid – 18th century)

“Pleasuring on the Sumida River” (late 17th – 18th century)

6 – panel screen, ink, color, and gold on paper (Collection of LACMA. Acquired in 1965)

Hishikawa Moronobu was the founder of the ukiyo-e genre of painting and woodblock printing, which featured images of the “floating world” (ukiyo) of the pleasure district with its licensed brothel quarters and kabuki theaters.

A favored topic was the Sumida River in Edo, a gathering place for pleasure seekers en route to Yoshiwara’s licensed brothel quarter.

The four social classes in Edo – in descending order: samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants – generally kept to their own respective group, except when traveling and visiting there.

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Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Screens, Scrolls, and Prints: Japanese Art from LACMA’s Collection

Resnick Pavilion

October 18, 2015–March 20, 2016

In 1965, architect Frank Gehry designed his first exhibition for LACMA, for Art Treasures from Japan, organized by the museum’s curator of Asian Art, George Kuwayama.

Gehry’s sensitive design featured elements of Japanese architecture—for example, rock gardens, wood post and beam construction for the barriers protecting sculptures, and dedicated niches for the art.

The architect alluded to low ceilings typical of Japan’s domestic architecture through cloth that delicately canopied from the ceiling.

Fifty years and eleven LACMA exhibitions later, the museum asked Gehry, on the occasion of his retrospective Frank Gehry, to reprise his role designing a presentation of Japanese art, with the selection of a small group of screens, scrolls, and prints from LACMA’s permanent collection.

The exhibition features works that employ paper as their support, and highlights the extraordinary diversity of styles, subject matter, and artistic techniques found in Japanese art from the 15th to early 20th centuries.

This exhibition is included in General Admission.

This exhibition is designed by Gehry Partners, LLP, Los Angeles, with thanks to C. Gregory Walsh.