Opening this weekend, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan from the Tokyo National Museum, which features more than 50 masterpieces of modern Japanese art from the Tokyo National Museum. Exhibition highlights include six objects considered ‘Important Cultural Properties of Japan.’ These include Maiko Girl by Kuroda Seiki and Portrait of Reiko by Kishida Ryūsei as well as other important works in Japanese modern art history such as Mount Fuji Rising above Clouds by Yokoyama Taikan and Spring Rain by Shimomura Kanzan.
Modern Japanese artists re-formed and explored the visual presentation of the traditional arts from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, inspired by their cross-cultural explorations of Western art and its paradigms. The masterworks assembled in Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan from the Tokyo National Museum reflect a confluence of influences drawn from the Japanese traditional style of painting in concert with the emerging crafts tradition and Western styles of oil painting and sculpture.
By reinterpreting tradition in Japanese modern art, they maintained the continuity between the pre-modern Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji period as well as integrating cultural influences from the West. Japanese artists invented new traditions for a new age employing a variety of media, including painting, crafts, and sculpture
