Pavilion for Japanese Art at Los Angeles County Museum is currently presenting the following exhibitions: “Rustling in the Grass: Japanese Bird, Flower and Animal Painting” from Feb 17 – May 15; “Japanese Prints: Inspired by and Inspiring Hiroshige” from Feb 17 – August 24.
Pavilion for Japanese Art in Los Angeles County Museum of Art is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036.
Museum hours: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 12 noon – 8 pm, Friday 12 noon – 9 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11 am – 8 pm, Closed Wednesdays.
For further information about Japanese art exhibitions at LACMA, call (323) 857-6565
Rustling in the Grass: Japanese Bird, Flower and Animal Painting
February 17 – May 15, 2011
Mori Sosen (Japan, 1747-1821) Detail of Six Animals, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Image: 37 ¼ x 13 ½ in; Mount: 67 ¾ x 18 ¼ in. Gift of Camilla Chandler Frost. Photograph © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA
As one of the accepted types of painting to be shown in official residences, scenes of birds, flowers and animals (kachoga) were rife with metaphorical reference as well as physical beauty.
Representing strength, royal magnificence, paradisiacal wonder, peace and plenitude, or sturdy character, bird, flower and animal paintings filled the meeting halls of samurai homes and castles, imperial palaces, and temples.
Many of these paintings remain in situ in historical buildings throughout Japan.
Paintings and decorative arts made for the imperial family and related nobility done in the native style yamato-e manner are often filled with seasonal references featuring those birds and flowers considered by royal poets symbolic of specific months.
Earliest survivors in this genre are from about the 13th century, but the style developed earlier, during the heyday of the court, in about the 10th century.
Quotes from these ancient works are seen repeatedly in paintings, lacquers, ceramics, and textiles up to the modern era.
Contacts between Japan and China expanded during the 13th through 15th centuries and bird and flower painting styles developed by literati amateur painters and professional court artists in Chinese were imported and emulated in Japan.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, artists began to nativize these Chinese-style themes by creating them in screen formats, expanding the themes to cover the progression of the seasons, and adding gold and color to ink paintings for stronger visual impact.
From the 17th century on, patrons of the arts came from more than just the ruling classes. As the buying power of the traditional elites of the aristocracy and samurai dwindled, wealth increased among merchants, considered at the bottom of the social scale.
The merchant class patronized newly formed groups of artists who represented their aesthetics and interests. Paintings from the Maruyama and Shijo ateliers in a naturalistic manner reflected a burgeoning interest in empirical science.
Elegant, decorative works by artists of the Rimpa tradition were filled with poetic content but could easily be appreciated for their sheer beauty.
Appreciation for the classic beauty of bird and flower subjects has continued through the 20th and into the 21st century with paintings in the nihonga (Japanese painting) style.
Japanese Prints: Inspired by and Inspiring Hiroshige
February 17 – August 24, 2011
Toyohara Kunichika (Japan, 1835-1900) Zeze, 1863, 4th month, Color woodblock print, Image: 13 1/8 x 9 1/4 in; Sheet: 14 5/16 x 9 3/4 in. Gift of Carl Holmes. Photograph © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA
Utagawa Hiroshige, as a specialist in landscapes and views of famous places, had a broad and penetrating effect on art in his time, as well as in the century following his death, both in Japan and abroad.
In this installation, we display some of Hiroshige’s work alongside that of his contemporaries such as the most popular artist of the time, Utagawa Kunisada.
Several of these artists quoted his designs in their own prints or collaborated with him directly combining their designs with his. Prints by later artists reveal that compositional types developed by Hiroshige became a standard.
In the twentieth century, artists drew atmospheric landscapes from the style initially developed by Hiroshige, some modernizing the motifs featured in Hiroshige’s prints by decentralizing and expanding them, and adding a sense of mystery through enveloping darkness.
