Transformation: Modern Japanese Art

This exhibition explores the dynamic modern period (1860s–1930s) in Japanese art, when dramatic changes in society were reflected in the arts, resulting in works of stunning vision and technical accomplishment. As Japan became part of a larger, modernized world, public education and national exhibitions placed the arts within a larger search for a new identity. Artists rediscovered the past, and upon its bedrock they built a road into the future. Painting, which was traditionally recognized as the highest form of expression, became the vehicle for the new national style of Nihonga, literally “Japanese painting.” Artists in other mediums responded in turn, and as painters collaborated with ceramics and lacquer workshops, a broad-based, neoteric aesthetic rich in innovation emerged. The exhibition features highlights from a recent major gift of 127 modern Japanese paintings, ceramics and lacquerwares donated by prominent collector Terry Welch.