Seductive Smiles: Masterpieces of ukiyo-e paintings from the Weston Collection

The Ueno Royal Museum
20 November 2015 – 17 January 2016

 
The collection of ukiyo-e paintings held by Roger Weston, a Chicago-based Japanese art collector and a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, is counted among the world’s finest and largest. This exhibition presents, all together at once, 129 pieces specially selected from the collection.

When speaking of “ukiyo-e” (pictures depicting the manners of a period), many think of works of print, such as the prints of actors by Sharaku, Japanese beauties by Utamaro and landscapes by Hokusai and Hiroshige. Distinguished from prints, the paintings produced on silk or paper are called “nikuhitsu” (brush-drawn) ukiyo-e. The ukiyo-e paintings reveal the painters’ sophisticated techniques, seen in such representations as finely drawn hairline and the limbs glimpsed through the sheer fabric.

At this exhibition, trace the history of beauties in a variety of costumes and hairstyles, from the early Edo period to the Meiji era, through paintings of more than 50 artists – including Utamaro Kitagawa, Toyokuni Utagawa, Hokusai Katsushika and Kyosai Kawanabe. Discover each painter’s ideal beauty.

One more plus, the exhibition uses the latest Japanese technologies such as LED and OLED lights and high transparent acrylic panels. This enables visitors to better appreciate, at a close distance, the works’ original colours and delicate brush strokes.