The Chrysanthemum in Japanese Art

Through January 11, 2009
LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s William D. Rondina and Giovanni Foroni LoFaro Gallery

For centuries the chrysanthemum has been one of the representative flowering plants of autumn in Japanese arts and literature. The Chrysanthemum in Japanese Art celebrates the use of this special flower as a versatile visual motif in paintings, prints, textiles, ceramics, and lacquerware.

The 32 exquisite works in the exhibition are on loan from exceptional collections of Japanese art outside Japan: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Mary Griggs Burke Collection of Japanese Art as well as from several private dealers and collectors.

Guest co-curators of the show are Dr. Miyeko Murase (Takeo and Itsuko Atsumi Professor Emerita, Columbia University, and former Special Consultant for Japanese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Stephanie Wada (Associate Curator of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation and the Mary Griggs Burke Collection of Japanese Art).

The Actor Sawamura Sōjūrō III in the Role of Shimada Jūzaburō Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769–1825) From the series &Portraits of Actors on Stage:"Kinokuniya" (Yakusha butai no sugata-e: Kinokuniya) Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1795 Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936 (JP2720)