January–December 2013
January • February • March • April • May • September • October • November • December
The following is an archive of past Japanese Art Society of America lectures and special events. Go to JASA Programs for our most current schedule.
January
Tuesday, January 8, 4–5 p.m.
Museum of Modern Art11 West 53rd Street
New York, New York
Private Gallery tour
Special private tour of the MoMA exhibition Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant Garde, with Associate Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, Doryun Chong. This gallery tour is free with museum admission.
Thursday, January 24, 6 p.m.
The Marymount School 1026 Fifth AvenueNew York, New York
LECTURE: JAPANESE CULTURE
Haruo Shirane, Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at Columbia University, will speak on his recent book, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts. This event is part of a new initiative to expand JASA programming beyond art to literature and other fields.
February
MONday, February 11, 6 p.m.
Japan Society 333 East 47th Street New York, New YorkCROSSING THE THRESHOLD: New Visions for Japan Society Gallery
Miwako Tezuka, Ph.D., Director of Japan Society Gallery since July 2012, will talk about “Crossing the Threshold: New Visions for Japan Society Gallery.” The Japan Society Gallery opened its doors to the public in 1971, then the only institution dedicated solely to bringing Japanese arts and culture to New York audiences. Over the past four decades we have witnessed many cultural climate changes, and a recent shift in a geopolitical landscape of Asia places Japan in uncertain terrain. In such a milieu, art becomes ever more important as a transnational agent and a vehicle of creative global communication. Building upon and beyond its legacy, Japan Society Gallery continues to open its doors to new art and scholarships that engage global audiences. This talk examines the importance of cross-historical and transnational curatorial methodology applied to the Society’s upcoming exhibition Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints and presents initiatives that the Society will launch in coming months.
Previously, Miwako Tezuka was Associate Curator at Asia Society Museum in New York. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University in 2005. In 2003 Tezuka cofounded PoNJA-GenKon (Post-1945 Japanese Art Discussion Group), a global online network of over 150 specialists and students, working in the field of contemporary Japanese art.
March
Sunday, March 17, 12–1:30 p.m.
Japan Society, Murase Room333 East 47th Street New York, New York
Annual Meeting and Special Program
Special guest lecturer Robert S. Feinberg will speak on The Changing Aesthetics of Edo Period Paintings, a private collector’s perspective. As collectors of Edo period (1615–1868) Japanese paintings for more than 40 years, JASA members Robert and Betsy Feinberg of Bethesda, Maryland, felt that understanding the history underlying the dramatic changes in the aesthetics of the Edo period was important to developing an eye for collecting its art. Using paintings from their collection as examples, Dr. Feinberg will discuss the historical background behind the emergence of the “Japaneseness” in Edo period style and the major painters who created it.
Monday, March 18
New York, New YorkPrivate Collection Visit
JASA members David Frank and Sugiyama Kazukuni invite JASA members for a visit to their Japanese-influenced Tribeca home in New York.
Thursday, March 28, 4–5 p.m.
Japan Society333 East 47th Street New York, New York
Private Tour of Edo Pop Exhibition with Sebastian Izzard
JASA member and renowned ukiyo-e expert Sebastian Izzard will present a private tour focusing on the ukiyo-e prints loaned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art to the special exhibition, Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints.
April
Thursday, April 4, 6 p.m.
The Marymount School1026 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
Lecture: Japanese Ceramics
Rescheduled from the Fall, noted dealer Joan B. Mirviss will present The New Golden Age of Japanese Ceramics: 1950 to the Present, an illustrated lecture in honor of Dr. Frederick Baekeland and his contribution to the study and collecting of contemporary Japanese ceramics.
Tuesday, April 16, 5:15 p.m.
Guggenheim Museum1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street
New York, New York
Private gallery tour: Gutai exhibition
Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, will lead a special tour of the museum’s exhibition Gutai: Splendid Playground.
Wednesday, April 17, 6 p.m.
The Marymount School1026 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
Lecture: Japanese Screens
Sinéad Kehoe, Assistant Curator, Department of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will present Screens within Screens: Unfolding 18th Century Styles, an illustrated stroll through Japanese paintings styles of the 18th century with comments on a pair of six-fold screens recently acquired by the museum.
May
thursday–Sunday, May 2–5 (Opening Night Preview: Wednesday, May 1)
Art and Antiques Dealers Spring ShowPark Avenue Armory
Park Avenue and 66th Street
New York, NY
VIP Passes and Vendor Tour
Ginger Piotter has again offered JASA members free VIP passes to the spring show. The VIP pass includes complimentary admission for two people to attend the Opening Night Preview, plus all show hours, lectures and discussions. In addition, we are offered a tour on May 2 of those vendors showing Japanese art. All who are interested should meet by the Cafe at 11 a.m.
Friday–monday, May 17–20
Los Angeles, CaliforniaJASA Tour
Special JASA tour to central and southern California, via Los Angeles. Highlights include tour of the Genji and His World woodblock prints exhibition and permanent collections at the Clark Center for Japanese Art in Hanford, and visits to the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Huntington Gardens. Organized with West Coast JASA member Wilson Grabill.
September
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 11 a.m. –12:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 3–4:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Japanese Galleries
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
Brush Writing in the Arts of Japan
Private gallery tour for JASA members presented by John Carpenter, Curator of Japanese Art, of Brush Writing in the Arts of Japan. (The exhibition runs through January 12, 2014.) Please note: The November 7 tour will be during the second rotation of the exhibition.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 6 p.m.
The Marymount School
1026 Fifth Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets
New York, New York
Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Castle of Osaka
Anton Schweizer, Andrew R. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, New York University, will speak on Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Castle of Osaka. Recent findings confirm that it featured a donjon and a Nō stage, both entirely lacquered in black and decorated with gold and colors; a vast “Hall of a Thousand Tatami” (Senjōjiki); and a spectacular, highly ornate bridge as entrance to the inner enclosure. Dr. Schweizer will also present some short comments on the rediscovery of the long-sought pair to the V&A Mazarin Chest. Anton Schweizer received his Ph.D. from Heidelberg University, Germany. Prior to his studies of art history in Munich and Kyoto, he was trained as an art restorer and did internships in traditional lacquer workshops in the Kiso region of Nagano Prefecture.
Dr. Schweizer’s interests include premodern Japanese interior decoration, architecture and lacquer objects addressing issues of political iconography, historiography and materiality. Among his present projects are the editing for publication of his Ph.D. thesis, “The Ōsaki Hachiman Shrine in Sendai and the phenomenon of lacquered architecture in Momoyama Japan,” as well as several articles on Japanese export lacquer and the Chinoiserie fashion in 17th and 18th century Europe.
October
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 9:30 A.M.–4:30 P.M.
Tarrytown, New York
VISIT TO THE JAPANESE GARDEN AND TEAHOUSE AT KYKUIT
Excursion by train to Kykuit, the Rockefeller Family Estate in Tarrytown. Tour hosted by JASA board member Cynthia Altman, Curator of the Kykuit collections. A special tea demonstration, by Yoshihiro Terazono from Urasenke, and lunch are planned for participants.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 6 P.M.
The Marymount School
1026 Fifth Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets
New York, New York
Reinventing Tokyo and the Art of Kageyama Kōyō
Samuel C. Morse, Professor in the Departments of Art and the History of Art and Asian Languages and Civilizations at Amherst College, and curator of Reinventing Tokyo: Japan’s Largest City in the Artistic Imagination (held at the Mead Art Museum in the fall of 2012), will introduce the exhibition and then trace Kageyama’s career and artistry during the Shōwa era.
November
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 6:30–7 P.M.; 7-7:30 P.M.
Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY
Rebirth: Recent Work by Mariko Mori
Visionary artist Mariko Mori, an icon of 1990s Japanese pop art, will lead a gallery tour for JASA members. The entire Japan Society gallery space has been transformed into Mori’s world through 35 sculptures, drawings, photographs, sound and video works, strung together into a narrative of birth, death and rebirth—a continuous circle of life force that the artist observes on a cosmic scale.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 3–4:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Japanese Galleries
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
Brush Writing in the Arts of Japan (SECOND ROTATION)
Private gallery tour for JASA members presented by John Carpenter, Curator of Japanese Art, of Brush Writing in the Arts of Japan. (The exhibition runs through January 12, 2014.) Please note: This tour will be during the second rotation of the exhibition. For the first rotation, see the September listing.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 6 P.M.
The Marymount School
1026 Fifth Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets
New York, New York
Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art
Timothy Clark, Head of the Japanese Section, Department of Asia, at the British Museum will speak on the topic of his new exhibition, which will take place at the British Museum from October 3, 2013, through January 5, 2014.
December
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11,6 P.M.
The Marymount School
1026 Fifth Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets
New York, New York
LECTURE AND HOLIDAY PARTY
Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, will speak on Guts and Bones: Gutai and Japan’s Postwar Discourse on Ink.