Asian Gallery re-opens

The LRMA Asian Gallery, which has been closed since April, is now re-opened. The gallery has been used for the last few months for storage of crates from the exhibition, NASA|ART: 50 Years of Exploration. Now that those crates are packed and shipped off to their next destination, the Japanese Prints are again on display. Education Outreach Coordinator Angie King curated this selection, which consists mostly of prints with images of animals in them.

While we ordinarily exhibit only Edo period prints, she selected one print from the Meiji period, and one from the Modern period. These prints clearly reflect the Western European influence that entered Japan in 1858, at the end of the Edo period. Also on display are our newest print triptych, The Dragon King’s Palace: The Three Treasures Presented to Tawara Toda Hidesato by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), and a rare preparatory drawing for a triptych that was never produced, The Hour of the Snake by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825). We know this particular image was never made into a print, because the preparatory drawing is destroyed in the process of making a woodblock print.