2016 / San Francisco / European and Japanese masterpieces in exhibition exploring the impact of Japan on Western artists, Oct 30 – Feb 7
“Postman Joseph Roulin” (left), 1888, by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890): “Actor Onoe Matsusuke I,” approx. 1814–1815, by Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III; Japanese, 1786–1864). Photograph © 2015, The Museum of Fine Art, Boston.
Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Looking East: Now Japan Inspired Monet, Vab Gogh and other Western artists
Oct. 30, 2015–Feb. 7, 2016
European, American and Japanese masterpieces in exhibition exploring the impact of Japan on Western artists
Looking East features more than 170 artworks drawn from the acclaimed collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with masterpieces by the great Impressionist and post-Impressionist painters Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin, among others.
The art and culture of Japan inspired leading artists throughout Europe and the United States to create works of renewed vision and singular beauty.
The exhibition is organized into four thematic areas, tracing the impact of Japanese approaches to women, city life, nature and landscape. Within each theme, artworks from Japan are paired with American or European works to represent the West’s assimilation of new thematic and formal approaches.
Japanese woodblock prints by such celebrated masters as Kitagawa Utamaro, Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai are shown in dialogue with oil paintings, prints and photographs by a diverse mix of Western artists, demonstrating regional variations on japonisme. Bronze sword guards and paper stencils from Japan are juxtaposed with metalwork by Western manufacturers Boucheron, Gorham and Tiffany.
Other objects used in daily life, like a chair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, also show the wide-ranging impact of Japanese design in the West.
Additional highlights in the exhibition include Vincent van Gogh’s painting Postman Joseph Roulin; Claude Monet’s The water lily pond; Five Swans, an elegant wool tapestry designed by Otto Eckmann; Paul Gauguin’s canvas Landscape with two Breton women; and Otome, a print by Kikukawa Eizan.
Asian Art Museum is located at 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102. (415) 581-3500 www.asianart.org
The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Mondays, as well as New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
Looking East Admission: $20 for adults and $15 for seniors (65 & over). On weekends, $25 for adults and $20 for seniors (65 & over). On Target First Free Sundays, admission is $10.
General Admission: $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (65 & over). General admission is free to all on Target First Free Sundays (the first Sunday of every month).
