Exhibitions

Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection

November 6, 2004 – January 2, 2005

[detail] Fujiwara no Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight, (Artist) Tsukioka Yoshitoshi; Japan; 1883; Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; H x W (image): 35.5 x 70 cm (14 x 27 9/16 in); Purchase–Dr. Carol Master, Mr. and Mrs. Willard G. Clark, and Dr. and Mrs. Robert S. Feinberg; S2003.8.3010

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1050 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC

Pavilion, Sublevel 1

See on Map Floor Plan

This exhibition presents approximately 160 of the more than 4,500 Japanese woodblock prints from the 1860s through the 1940s bequeathed to the museum by Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). The prints are shown in a series of thematic categories that had particular resonance with Muller: the rendering of light in various atmospheric conditions; depictions of birds and beasts; theatricality; images of female beauty; and printing technique in the service of effect. Artists represented included Shinsui, Kampo, Yoshitoshi, Kiyochika, Shunsen, Hasui, and Koson. The prints are complemented by some paintings also drawn from Muller's holdings.