Past exhibitionNezu Museum

Irises and Mountain Stream in Summer and Autumn

Apr 12, 2017 〜 May 14, 2017

Verify source

artible never publishes unsourced facts. Click to verify on the original.

Internet Archive snapshot

web.archive.org/web/20170521214738/http://www.nezu-muse.or.j · Captured 2017-05-21

Museum official page: www.nezu-muse.or.jp:80/en/exhibition ↗

ABOUT

This exhibition features two great masterpieces of Rinpa painting: the National Treasure Irises screens by Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) and the Mountain Streams in Summer and Autumn screens by Suzuki Kiitsu (1796–1858). The iris flowers against a flat background in Kōrin’s Irises screens offer the impression of a pattern on a costume, while at the same time giving off a sense of lively vitality. In contrast, the Mountain Streams in Summer and Autumn screens present a scene of mountain streams flowing through cypress groves highlighted by lilies and a cherry tree with a few red autumn leaves that at first glance seems casually unassuming, but that also appears somehow strangely unreal. However, commonalities between these works can be detected in features such as the rhythmical feel of the motifs and the brilliance of the blues and greens against the gold ground. This exhibition will present a number of gold screens of the Rinpa School along with works produced from Kiitsu’s time in the first half of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century.