Release: Immediate
Contact: Esther Wu | 469-438-5627 | ewu@crowcollection.org
Photos/interviews: available upon request
Untamed Beauty: Tigers in Japanese Art opens at the Crow Collection of Asian Art January 10, 2009 and continues through March 8, 2009.
This new exhibition features tiger painters by some of Japan's most famous painters of the last three hundred years.
The Japanese have been fascinated by tigers for centuries. One of the earliest tiger paintings to be discovered in Japan may have been painted in the seventh century and was discovered on the wall of a tomb chamber near the city of Asuka.
Tigers are not indigenous to Japan, however these powerful cats so captivated Japanese imaginations that early artists produced innumerable paintings of them over the course of their history—most without the benefit of firsthand observations. Early Japanese artists were following a precedent established in China, where tigers roamed in great numbers and achieved religious and cosmological symbolism.
According to traditional Asian mythology, tigers are identified with yin, the female principle, as well as autumn and wind. The dragon, representing yang, is believed to create mists and rain and is associated with spring and rejuvenation. Tigers and dragons are sometimes paired together as these images represent opposite principles in nature. Japanese artists Kishi Ganku and Kishi Renzan depict tigers and dragons amid swirling clouds.
Untamed Beauty: Tigers in Japanese Art is a magnificent exhibition that exemplifies not only how the Japanese artists have skillfully rendered the tiger’s physical appearance, but how they have also captured the tiger’s mood or spirit by placing it in a specific context.
Artist Katayama Yokoku painted tigers emerging from bamboo—a traditional symbol of strength, while Kano Tanshin shows his tigers fording streams. However Tawarayo Sotatsu portrays his tiger cleaning its paw. Sotatus’s tiger appears playful and more comical.
This exhibition showcases twenty-four paintings from the collection of Harriet and Edson Spencer and was organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
In 1959 the Spencers were living in Tokyo when they became enamored of Japanese folk art. They began acquiring Otsu-e, simple paintings produced in and around the town of Otsu between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1978, Mr. Spencer, who was born in the year of the tiger, began to expand his collection to include Japanese painting of tigers at the suggestion of Alexandra Munroe, then with the Japan House Gallery in New York.
"This impressive collection of paintings is focused on a single subject matter with highly diversified artistic expression," said Shiyuan Yuan, curator at the Crow Collection. "Ed Spencer demonstrated his great talent as a connoisseur and collector with this exhibition."
The collection was put on view to the public for the first time by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2005. Matthew Welch, curator of Japanese and Korean art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts serves as organizing curator.
The Crow Collection of Asian Art is now proud to bring Untamed Beauty: Tigers in Japanese Art to North Texas. The exhibition continues through March 8, 2009.
The Crow Collection of Asian Art is dedicated to the arts and cultures of China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia. The museum, which is located at 2010 Flora Street, is celebrating its 10th year in the Arts District of downtown Dallas.
The museum is open Tuesdays–Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours on Thursdays until 9 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays. Admission is free. For more information call 214-271-4484.
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