Pints and Prints: Hiroshige and Murakami Event; Utagawa Hiroshige. Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mōde), no. 101 from 100 Famous Views of Edo, 11th month of 1857. Woodblock print. Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.101. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
UPCOMING EVENTS
Pints and Prints: Hiroshige and Murakami
Thursday, July 18, 7-9pm
Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion, 1st Floor
Grab a brew and create your own art prints with Japanese gyotaku techniques, inspired by Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami). This workshop is led by teaching artist Sato Yamamoto.
Tickets are $35 and include after-hours admission to Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami), a complimentary drink, and a Brooklyn Museum tote. Art materials are provided. Member tickets are $20. Not a Member? Join today!
To sign up and learn more, click here.
Stroller Tours: Hiroshige
Friday, July 19, 10-11:15am
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor
Enjoy an interactive, stroller-friendly tour of Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami). Designed for children up to 24 months old and their caregivers, this baby-friendly program features touchable objects, songs, exploration of artworks on view, and an opportunity to connect with other adults. Breastfeeding is welcome. Single strollers only, please.
Tickets are $32 (per family; 1 adult, 1 child) and include Museum general admission. To add another adult for $16, contact [email protected]. Member tickets are $28.80. Not a Member? Join today!
To sign up and learn more, click here.
Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858), Plum Estate, Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki), no. 30 from 100 Famous Views of Edo, 11th month of 1857. Woodblock print, 14 3/16 × 9 1/4 in. (36 × 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.30. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami)
April 5 – August 4, 2024
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor
What are the must-see locations in your favorite city? Where do you go when you need a breath of fresh air? What makes certain neighborhoods famous? Join an artist-insider on a tour of nineteenth-century Tokyo (then known as Edo), from lumberyards to destination restaurants, and see if his choices illuminate your own relationship with the cities you know well.
For the first time in twenty-four years, Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo—one of the Brooklyn Museum’s greatest treasures—returns to public display. The Museum’s complete set of these celebrated prints is among the world’s finest, full of vibrant colors preserved by decades in the dark.
While most presentations have centered on the prints’ technical sophistication and influence on European artists, here we focus on their urban subject matter. Originally published in 1856–58, the series captures the evolving socioeconomic and environmental landscape of the city that would become Tokyo. Through both the prints and complementary objects drawn from the Museum’s collection, you’ll be immersed in mid-nineteenth-century Edo and see it through the eyes of the ordinary people who populate Hiroshige’s settings. You’ll encounter all four seasons in scenes of picnics beneath cherry blossoms, summer rainstorms, falling maple leaves, and wintry dusks. The exhibition also includes modern photographs to show how Hiroshige’s scenes morphed into today’s Tokyo.
Artist Takashi Murakami (born Tokyo, Japan, 1962) takes Hiroshige’s views into a more fantastical realm with a set of his own paintings. Created in direct response to 100 Famous Views of Edo, these works invite us to reconsider Hiroshige’s world and his contributions to global art history.
Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami) is organized by Joan Cummins, Lisa and Bernard Selz Senior Curator, Asian Art, Brooklyn Museum.
There are also many, exciting programs accompanying this exhibition scheduled throughout the month, including printmaking workshops and a conversation between Takashki Murakami and curator Joan Cummins.
To learn more, click here.
Kondō Takahiro (Japanese, born 1958), Reflection: TK Self Portrait, 2010., glazed porcelain, 19 1/16 × 6 3/16 in. (48.5 × 15.7 cm); Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz Collection, © Kondō Takahiro. (Photo: Richard P. Goodbody and John Morgan)
Museum Spotlight: Porcelains in the Mist: The Kondō Family of Ceramicists
December 8, 2023 – December 8, 2024
This porcelain head, a self-portrait, is glazed in shades of blue and covered with metallic droplets called “silver mist,” or gintekisai. The term, like the secret technique that produces the effect, was invented by ceramicist Kondō Takahiro (born 1958). Based in Kyoto, Japan, he carries on a legacy of innovation in ceramic art. For the last one hundred years, Kondō Takahiro and his father Kondō Hiroshi (1936–2012), grandfather Kondō Yūzō (1902–1985), and uncle Kondō Yutaka (1932–1983) have broken free of centuries-old traditions to pursue original, individual expression.
Porcelains in the Mist brings together sixty-one pieces that celebrate the Kondō family’s innovations and talents. Their early creations range from freehand-painted vases to pure-white jars. Most of the works on view are by Takahiro, who often pairs his “mist,” which he describes as “water born from fire,” with dramatic shapes and textures. Several of these powerful porcelains reflect his personal responses to monumental events, particularly the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
To learn more, click here.
Past Related Program:
Asia Week New York Zoom Panel Discussion with the Artist
Kondo Takahiro: The Thinking Hand
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 5pm EST
In partnership with Asia Week New York, this was a fascinating panel discussion celebrating one of Japan’s most admired ceramists, Kondo Takahiro. Kondo’s forebears specialized in wheel-thrown vessels with painted decoration, but he has pushed the limits of the ceramic medium to create art of broader significance.
Our distinguished panelists traced Kondo’s career, explained the thinking behind our current display, discussed the haunting Reduction body sculptures, and set his work in global context. Speaking live from Kyoto, Kondo introduced his recent projects and the webinar concluded with a dialogue between the artist and catalogue author Joe Earle.
Panelists included:
Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer and historian based in New York and London.
Joan Cummins has served as Lisa and Bernard Selz Curator of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum since 2007.
Xiaojin Wu currently serves as the Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Kondo Takahiro, artist
And moderated by Joe Earle, former chief curator of Asian art departments in museums in London and Boston, who over the last 40 years has presented numerous exhibitions of Japanese ceramics.
A recording of this discussion will be posted soon on the ‘Webinars and Video’ section of the Asia Week New York website. Please stay tuned.
Museum Spotlights are intimate installations of noteworthy collection works, recent acquisitions, and loans, presented to encourage deeper conversations about art, history, and justice.
