AFA Summer 2020

Summer 48 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection Harvard Art Museums 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Mass. Currently through July 26, 2020 Please visit www.harvardartmuseums.org fo r updates on a closing date A special exhibition of more than 120 of the finest works from the preeminent collection of Robert S. (Harvard class of 1961) and Betsy G. Feinberg, is on view exclusively at the Harvard Art Museums. Painting Edo offers a window onto the supremely rich visual culture of Japan’s early modern era and explores how the Edo period (1615– 1868), and the city of Edo (present-day Tokyo), expressed itself during a time of artistic renaissance. A striking array of paintings in all the major formats is on display—hanging scrolls, folding screens, sliding doors, fan paintings, and woodblock-printed books, among others—from virtually every stylistic lineage of the era, telling a comprehensive story of Edo painting on its own terms. The largest exhibition ever presented at the Harvard Art Museums, Painting Edo is culled from more than 300 works of Japanese art generously promised by the Feinbergs in 2013 and judiciously assembled during nearly fifty years. The Feinberg Collection—the finest private collection of Edo period Japanese painting in the United States—is notable not only for its size and remarkable quality, but also for its comprehensiveness. It offers an exceptional opportunity to explore continuities and disruptions in artistic practice in early modern Japan. The museums’ stewardship of the collection ensures access by students, faculty, scholars, and the public, and allows for teaching, research, and further documentation of these important works. Painting Edo begins in the Special Exhibitions Gallery on Level 3 and expands into three adjacent galleries typically reserved for installations that support university coursework. This is the first time the museums have mounted a single exhibition across all four spaces. Two catalogues will be released in conjunction with the exhibition, a companion to the exhibition and a catalogue of the Feinberg Collection, both published by the Harvard Art Museums and distributed by Yale University Press. Please visit harvardartmuseums.org for updates on related public programs. HAPPENINGS : Tawaraya Sōri’s Autumn Maple Trees (second half 18th century), one of only a handful of works that survive by the artist and widely regarded as his masterpiece. Lotus in Autumn (1872), a wildly brushed hanging scroll by the female artist Okuhara Seiko, whose Chinese-style ink paintings became hugely popular in the years immediately following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, a time that ushered in Japan’s modern era. A Portuguese Trading Ship Arrives in Japan (17th century), one of a pair of six-panel folding screens that depicts the arrival of a ship into port and the procession of its captain into town, an annual voyage made by the Portuguese to trade silver, silks, and spices.