UPCOMING AUTUMN EXHIBITIONS
Skulls and skeletons are a popular subject in Japanese art. They appear in paintings, prints, and book illustrations as secondary elements but also as primary subjects, especially with the increased understanding of anatomy in the 19th century.
Bare Bones: Skeletons in Japanese Art
October 24, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Cargill Gallery (103)
Skulls and skeletons are a popular subject in Japanese art. They appear in paintings, prints, and book illustrations as secondary elements but also as primary subjects, especially with the increased understanding of anatomy in the 19th century.
This exhibition shows skeletons in a life-like, humorous manner, exhibiting a playfulness to the usually terrifying and haunting nature of skeletons. The highlight is the recently acquired pair of six-panel folding screens by Takeuchi Ryūa, a truly memorable and unique work of skeletons at play.
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Suzuki Osamu (Japanese, 1926–2001). Clay Figurine (detail), 1962. Glazed stoneware. Collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz. EL2025.25.16
Breaking Tradition: The Avant-Garde in Japanese Ceramics, 1948 to 1990
October 24, 2026 – February 7, 2027
Mary Griggs Burke Gallery of Japanese Art (251–253)
For many Japanese artists, the process of conceptualizing and producing an artwork underwent fundamental, widespread change after the end of World War II in 1945. The strong emphasis on continuity was abandoned by some in favor of a radical new path, previously unheard of, especially in the crafts section.
The birth of an avant-garde and formal declaration for innovations is notable throughout different media. One approach for avant-garde artists was to create sculptures instead of functional objects. In 1948, a group of five ceramic artists, among them Yagi Kazuo (1918–1979), Yamada Hikaru (1923–2001), and Suzuki Osamu (1926–2001), founded Sōdeisha, literally the Crawling through Mud Association. The Sōdeisha group was active until 1998. While more than 60 artists were members at some point, not every ceramic artist who created innovative sculptures joined. Artists like Kawamoto Gorō (1919–1986) and Morino Taimei (born 1934) preferred to work independently and pursued their own paths.
Individualism is a key factor in Japanese contemporary ceramics today. This exhibition sheds light on the beginning of the break with Japanese ceramics traditions by showcasing works from independent artists and Sōdeisha members created before 1990.
Generous support is provided by the Joan B. Mirviss and Robert J. Levine Endowment Fund for Japanese Ceramics and the Gale Family Endowment—named for a generous gift from Alfred P. Gale—which strengthens the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s efforts to reach a spectrum of audiences through a variety of programs, events, exhibitions, and publications focused on the museum’s renowned collection of Asian Art.
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ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
The Abstract Worlds of Yoshida Hodaka and Chizuko
September 20, 2025 – October 4, 2026
Galleries 251, 252, and 253
Yoshida Hodaka (1926–1995) was born into a family of artists. He was the second son of Yoshida Hiroshi (1876–1950), a leading Western-style artist in Japan during the early 20th century. Hodaka leaned toward abstraction and began exploring that path after his father’s death in 1950. In 1953, Hodaka married Chizuko (1924–2017), a trained painter. In addition to oil painting, both Hodaka and Chizuko worked in the woodblock print medium. In 1992, Hodaka created a set of six extraordinarily large prints that depict walls with great attention to structural features and surface details. This exhibition showcases the entire wall set together for the first time, along with Chizuko’s abstract works and playful groups of butterflies.
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Zhou Chen, active 1490–1535, Ming and Qing dynasty. Stormy Landscape with Fishermen at Sea, c. 1450-1535. Ink and color on gold-flecked paper; fan. Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton. 98.66.3
Ink Rhythms on the Breeze: The Art of Chinese Fan Paintings
November 29, 2025 – November 8, 2026
Sit Gallery (203)
This exhibition explores the intimate world of Chinese fan painting—where poetry, calligraphy, and painted images converge in the palm of the hand. Featuring circular silk fans from the Song and Yuan dynasties (10th–14th centuries) and folding fans from the Ming and Qing period (14th–early 20th centuries), these works reflect centuries of refined aesthetic practice, personal expression, seasonal contemplation, and spiritual reflection.
Whether created by court artists or literati scholars, each fan carries the rhythm of the brush and the breeze: a fleeting moment captured in ink. Drawn from Mia’s rich collection, the selected fans invite viewers to experience how art, nature, and verse were held—literally and symbolically—in one’s grasp.
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Kenji Nakahashi: A Confident Life
April 4, 2026 – December 27, 2026
Galleries 315 and 316
Contemplative, humorous, inventive, and surreal. These are just a few of many apt descriptions of the artworks of the Japanese artist Kenji Nakahashi. His active imagination, curiosity for his immediate environment, and embrace of the mundane provided endless inspiration and subjects for his art, inviting questions and reflections about life and everyday objects.
Born and educated in Japan, Nakahashi moved to New York City in 1973 at the age of 26, finding in the bustling metropolis the creative stimuli that would sustain his practice for the rest of his life. Best known for his concept-driven photography, Nakahashi actively experimented with a diverse range of mediums, including drawing, painting, collage, and printmaking. Relying on absurdity, visual and textual puns, and unusual juxtapositions, Nakahashi’s enigmatic images encourage viewers to contemplate both the strange and captivating aspects of everyday life.
Blending playfulness and intellectual vigor, Nakahashi often toyed with viewer’s expectations, depicting such mundane objects as street signs, drinking glasses, a hot-water bottle, and analog clocks in unfamiliar or even surreal contexts. Other subjects include storefronts, subway platforms, soaring skyscrapers, and mysterious fictional landscapes. He routinely flattened and fragmented the built environment of the city and its inhabitants into abstract geometric and kaleidoscopic forms, resulting in images that surprise, challenge, and delight.
Celebrating a recent anonymous gift of Nakahashi’s work to Mia’s collection, this exhibition showcases more than 60 photographs, prints, drawings, watercolors, collages, and one painting, representing the artist’s career from the 1970s through the early 1990s.
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Meruhen: Japanese Prints of Fairy Tales
May 9, 2026 – March 7, 2027
Mary Griggs Burke Gallery of Japanese Art (226, 227)
Meruhen, the Japanese word for fairy tales, originated from the German word Märchen, coined in the 15th century. The word meruhen first appeared in the early 20th century among Japanese writers interested in European romanticism and children’s literature. It soon became mainstream, and fairy tales, not only of German origin, remain popular today.
Several print artists like Kawano Kaoru (1916–1965) and Minami Keiko (1911–2004) presented fairy tale settings in their work, depicting young girls in innocent, dream-like scenarios, interacting with birds or other animals. This exhibition showcases their work along with prints by Kanamori Yoshio (1922–2016), Hori Hikaru (1952–2019), and Suzuki Atsuko (born 1968).
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