20 Exhibitions
MODERN JAPANESE PORTRAIT PRINTS
Te 1940s and 1950s were a pivotal time for Japan’s creative print movement, known as sosaku hanga (creative prints). Modern Japanese Portraits presents 24 groundbreaking portraits, including many rare editions, from the Art Institute’s collection. Just after the Second World War, artists who had primarily trained in oil painting turned to woodblock prints to portray the people around them, using the medium’s power and immediacy to capture a disappearing traditional world. Te exhibition features the
work of four sosaku hanga artists: Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955) and his followers Sekino Jun’ichiro (1914-1988), Saito Kiyoshi (1907-1997), and Kitaoka Fumio (1918–2007). Onchi was the movement’s main advocate, and his name is synonymous with the group. From 1939, sosaku hanga artists met at his home on the first Tursday of every month, where they received the encouragement, they needed to flourish. Te portrait of the Poet
Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886- 1942) was done as a tribute to Hagiwara Sakutaro one year after the poet’s death. Onchi had illustrated and designed Hagiwara’s first collection of poems ‘Tsuki ni hoeru’ (Howling at the Moon) in 1917 and remained closely associated with him. Sakutaro had published Te Ice Island in 1934, as a collection of poems that explores the author’s life as a disconsolate iceberg drifting in the northern seas, in which he uses dark imagery and colloquial language to express his doubts, fears, and anger about the state of the world. Onchi, himself a considerable poet, wrote in 1947 a poem about Hagiwara called Te Author of Te Ice Island. Te dark tones and wrinkled skin of the subject in this print make
A LOVE FOR DETAIL INDIAN PAINTING From the Rietberg Collection
Three Musketeers of Kurnal: Sergeant Kesu, Umi Chand, and Dharam Chand (Kala), by a master of the Fraser-Album, folio from a series of portraits of soldiers, dated 1816, gift of Balthasar and Nanni Reinhart, Museum Rietberg
Portrait of the Poet Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886-1942) by Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955) from 1943. Sakutaro was the author of the celebrated book The Ice Island (1943)
for a disturbing image, which is in keeping with Hagiwara’s tendency toward depression. Sakutaro was the first Japanese poet to write successfully in the modern colloquial language and in completely free forms. As can be seen in this haunting portrait, he was afflicted by a despair which led him to alcoholism and death in 1942, brought on by despair over the deepening tragedy of the Second World War. Tis portrait has been hailed as one of the most powerful prints produced by a 20th-century Japanese artist, and several other editions were later printed in 1949 and 1987. Many of the portraits of this
postwar movement are melancholic, and Onchi often cited the abstract and expressive portraits of Modernist European artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Edvard Munch as inspiration. Accordingly, the
Indian paintings have fascinated viewers for centuries thanks to their exceptional artistry and rich variety, revealing astonishing new ways of seeing. With over 2,600 works, Museum Rietberg holds one of Europe’s most significant collections of Indian paintings. Tese have been the focus of many scholarly publications and exhibitions presented to the public. Park-Villa Rieter was
Profile (1948) by Saito Kiyoshi (1907-1997), colour woodblock print, 50.8 x 39.4 cm, gift of Cornelius Crane
• Until 14 April, Art Institute of Chicago,
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A MOVEABLE FEAST
emotionally charged pieces he and his contemporaries printed during this era imbued their subjects with psychological nuance and depth.
designed in 1994 to house the Indian painting collection. Te current exhibition invites visitors to discover 60 of the most significant works in the museum’s collection in the intimate setting of the villa. Tis exhibition brings together highlights from the past 30 years, presenting milestones in the museum’s curatorial and research activities. Indian painting takes a narrative approach that rewards the attentive viewer, ensuring this genre will remain of great value to researchers and visitors well into the future. Terefore, the exhibition has been curated not only to delight the eye, but also to offer a chance to look into the future, showcasing the contemporary questions Museum Rietberg is exploring. Te first part of the
A Night Banquet at the Peach and Plum Garden (detail) by Ding Guanpeng (active 1737-68), Qing dynasty (1644-1911), handscroll, ink and colour on paper © The Palace Museum
Food culture is a vital component of traditional Chinese heritage, boasting a rich and diverse history. Tis exhibition takes the audience through a feast that traverses spiritual, cultural, and physical spaces. It also explores the culinary culture and lifestyle of ancient
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Chinese people through the evolution of food vessels, eating practices, and traditions through over 100 objects. Tese works, primarily on loan from Te Palace Museum, span from the Neolithic period (circa 10,000 BC to circa 2000 BC) to the Qing dynasty (1644-
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1911). Additional works on display come from the British Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, as well as from other museums in Hong Kong.
• Until 18 June, Hong Kong Palace Museum,
hkpm.org.hk
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exhibition discusses the question of how Indian painting was researched and categorised in the past. For some time, a distinction was made between Mughal painting, regarded as the more naturalistic genre, and Rajput painting, which was seen as more highly stylised and visionary, focused as it was on religious topics. Te works on display are further divided based on temporal and regional criteria. In recent years, it has become possible to uncover far more information about the artists themselves as well as their workshops and their relationships with fellow artists. Tis helps the audience to understand the artistic movements at play as well as influences which extended
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Pandit Seu of Guler (circa 1680-1740), Dadhimukha tells Rama, Lakshmana, and Sugriva of the destruction of Madhuvana, folio from the ‘small Guler Ramayana series’, circa 1720, purchase with funds from the City of Zurich, Museum Rietberg
Master of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh of Guler, ‘I was so shy’, Krishna and Radha meet for the first time, folio 13 from the Gitagovinda series of 1775-80, circa 1775, on permanent loan from Eberhard and Barbara Fischer, Museum Rietberg
beyond regional borders. Meticulous research has made it possible to identify individual artists behind the works by name. Te second part looks at
how these works were created and viewed in the past. Many of these Indian paintings have been taken from albums or series that were carefully arranged and put together. Te demands placed on artists required a high degree of aesthetic sense and organisation, affecting how the works were understood and handled. Over time, many series and albums were split apart, whether because of inheritances, political changes, or the art market. Te works were stripped of their original
context, radically changing how they were received. Today, we frequently experience Indian paintings as individual works rather than as parts of a larger work of art. Tis is why the museum is now seeking to once again present these works in their larger artistic context. Finally, ‘A Love for Detail’
looks at the future, and aims to give insight into the topics and research questions the museum will continue to explore. Tere is a thriving contemporary art scene in both India and Pakistan, and painting remains an important medium, characterised by many references to the past and to tradition fused with a contemporary perspective.
• Until 29 June, Rietberg Museum, Zurich,
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