Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Installation: Maruyama Ōkyo | Birds and Flowers
On View: January 19 – July 28, 2013
Location: Pavilion for Japanese Art, East Wing
This installation of paintings from LACMA’s permanent collection focuses on the artist Maruyama Ōkyo and his followers. Ōkyo (1733-1795) changed the course of Japanese art by introducing a new mode of expression.
Rather than adhering to Japanese painters’ traditional use of existing pictorial works and sketches, Ōkyo relied on first-hand observation to capture his animal subjects.
By observing birds and animals in their natural habitats, and as they interacted with one another, he brought to his paintings more naturalistic renderings as well as a heightened sense of each animal’s individual nature.
Ōkyo had a number of followers and influenced future generations of Japanese painters whose direct observation of nature enabled them to capture the essence of the creatures they depicted.
In addition to works by Ōkyo and his immediate followers, the hanging scrolls and folding screens on display include works created prior to Ōkyo’s influence as well as much later paintings created through the nineteenth and into the first quarter of the twentieth century.
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.
Related article: LACMA to debut national – treasure – class Okyo screens in US, Jan. 19