Japan is one of the few cultures that fully appreciated and fostered its craft art traditions in the 20th century: instituting a system of national competitive exhibitions, commissioning and purchasing crafts through the Imperial Household Agency, and supporting artists as "holders of important intangible cultural property." The exhibition features work by six artists who have been awarded this designation, and are popularly referred to as "living national treasures."
The exhibition will be on view from December 6, 2008 to Spring 2009.
Almost all of the works in the exhibition will be on public view for the first time outside of Japan. The exhibition will be divided into themed sections such as animal, floral, and geometric motifs, and spans more than 120 years. Among the many remarkable objects that will be on view are a superbly crafted lacquer box made around 1875, examples of Art Deco-influenced metalwork, and an abstract contemporary celadon vase.
This comprehensive overview is among the first of its kind, and presents a group of 70 gifts and promised gifts to the Museum from a single donor, Mr. Frederick R. McBrien III – a collection that will place Philadelphia on the map as one of the premier sites for the study and enjoyment of the stunning craftsmanship of Japan's modern and contemporary artists. The exhibition includes several less-explored areas such as metal crafts of the prewar period.
Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue (60 pp. with nearly 150 color images), published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. An introductory essay by Dr. Fischer will discuss the artists and ideas that shaped and defined the aesthetic of crafts in twentieth-century Japan. Illustrated entries will explore distinctive qualities of twenty-five of the objects. A comprehensive checklist will include color illustrations of objects not reproduced elsewhere in the publication. The book also will include a section on artists' biographies and reproductions of their marks. The book is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications and a generous individual. -- www.philamuseum.org
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