Fall 2001 Exhibition
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892)
Ghost of Okiku
Hanging scroll
Beauties and Beasts:
Delightful Dichotomies in Japanese Painting
September 1 – November 3, 2001
From September 1 to November 3, 2001 The Ruth and Sherman Lee Center for Japanese Art will host an exhibition of select masterworks of Japanese painting from the Lee Center's permanent collection, with loans from the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, and private collectors.
The exhibition includes 24 paintings of the Edo period (1615–1868), which explore a favorite theme of juxtaposing the gorgeous and the grotesque, and the serious and the humorous. The fragile, ephemeral nature of beauty is heightened when viewed in the context of the beast, the unattractive, the rough, and the uncultured. Featured artists include masters such as Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, and Kawanabe Kyōsai, artists who all reveled in depicting the bizarre and unusual, in addition to painters such as Teisai Hokuba (1770–1844), whose exquisite renderings of beauties provide a foil for the show's beasts.
This delightful and entertaining exhibition explores some of the various ways in which the cultured audiences of Edo Japan, hungry for the novel, the witty, and the sophisticated, interpreted images of beauty and beauties, by coupling them with depictions of beasts and beastliness, whether in appearance, manner, or behavior.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)
Devil Priest
Hanging scroll, now framed
[Pacific Asia Museum Collection, Pasadena]
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Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 1 – 5 pm. Closed on national holidays and during the month of August.
Admission: $5 for adults, $3 for students with valid ID. Children 12 and under free.
Weekly docent tours are held Saturdays at 1 pm and guided group tours can be arranged by calling the Center in advance at (559) 582-4915.