Past Exhibitions: 2004

A World of Orchids: Japanese Prints of the Species Orchids from the Villa Oyamazaki

March 20–July 11, 2004

Oncidium Papilio, native to Venezuela, from A Record of an Orchid Collection
Ikeda Zuigetsu (d. 1944)
Japanese, 1958
color woodblock print
Gift of Mrs. Maurice Seevers , 1983/1.371.76

How does an artist translate a well-known tale into visual form? That is the question addressed by this exhibition, which will draw from the Museum's collections to show how artists from Persia, India, China and Japan have solved this endlessly fascinating problem. Works on view will include paintings, sculpture, prints and rubbings that create pictorial versions of some of the best-loved classics of Asian literature, including The Tale of Genji, a classical Japanese romance; the Shahnama, the national epic of Persia; and the Ramayana, the stirring Hindu tale of conflict between good and evil.

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