Contemporary Japanese Photography from the Permanent Collecton

This exhibition in the Focus Gallery displayed a selection of Asian highlights from the Art Center's permanent collection. The first gifts of Asian art came to Vassar in 1917 when Charles M. Pratt, then Chairman of the Board of Trustees, made a donation of jade objects from China. In recent decades, the collection has grown thanks to gifts and purchases comprising a wide range of works from countries across Asia. Among the highlights on display were a page of sketches created in India around 1825 depicting a Rajput king, a sixteenth-century Chines scroll entitled "The Palace of the Nine Accomplishments," and a Tibetan painting on fabric, "One Thousand Buddhas." Recent acquisitions from Japan were also exhibited, including a folding screen with farming scenes by Kano Eino and an energetic ink painting of men taming horses by the Edo-period artist Soga Shohaku.

Also on view was a small installation in the Landing Gallery of Japanese photography that includes works from 1880 to 2009. Some highlighted photographers included Kusakabe Kimbei, Naoki Honjo, Kunié Sugiura, and Naoya Hatakeyama.