Happy and Healthy New Year!
I cannot image a better way than saying “goodbye” to 2025 than with the uplifting, positive sentiments reserved for the pine tree in Japanese and Chinese cultures. There are very few e ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Week of Shichi-go-san: Kitagawa Utamaro
“Rites of passage” refer to cultures all over the world in which certain birthdays are celebrated as stepping stones to a new period of life. A Japanese example is Shichi-go-san. The n ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Kanō Motonobu
The Kanō School artists—the favored group of painters for the nobility and shogunate—worked in a variety of genre, including traditional yamato-e that included bright patterns and gold lea ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai
National Pet Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on April 11. It was founded 2005/2006 by animal advocate and pet and family lifestyle expert Colleen Paige. The day is dedicated to all types of pe ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
National Poetry Month: Sōtatsu Tawaraya and Hon'ami Koetsu
I’ve posted previously about how poetry can be a visual art form when in the hands of a great calligrapher. I am not ashamed to repeat that assertion with this beautiful example of calligraphy c ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Nōguchi Shōhin
The painting style that evolved during the Southern Song Dynasty is considered by scholars to have been the classic example of Chinese monochromatic painting, particularly the "literati" sty ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Visualizing Cold in Works of Art
It probably does not need saying by now, but the last week has been quite cold in New England. I thought it might be interesting to see how artists visually interpret the idea of “cold.”&n ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
August is National Dog Month: Maruyama Ōkyo
I recently learned that August is celebrated as National Dog Month. I’m all for a month dedicated to those loyal and darling fellow sentients! A well-known doggy treat maker announced the month- ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Summer Weather: Kanō Yôsen'in Korenobu
July usually brings some steamy weather days to summer in New England. I’m sure we all know what it’s like when it’s already hot and humid and then it rains, adding a further haze to ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Gem of the Month: Kumi Sugaï
Abstraction was not an invention of Western artists in the early 1900s. The following definitions indicate that abstraction has been part of art throughout the world since the cave paintings of pre-hi ...
Read More
