| Details | Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) is one of early modern Japan’s most cherished artists. He was also one of the era’s most versatile painters, having worked in nearly every medium available to artists during his time: painting, lacquer, ceramics, and textiles. Kōrin’s mastery lies in the multivalence of his materials and his skill in recasting age-old themes into novel visual experiences. Through the lens of the iris subject—one of Kōrin’s signature tropes—this talk from Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art Frank Feltens will explore the processes of production, layered cultural meanings, and impact of key examples of Kōrin’s iris works in different media.
Frank Feltens is the Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. He holds a PhD in Japanese art history from Columbia University and specializes in Japanese art with a focus on the late medieval and early modern periods. Feltens has published and lectured on a range of topics related to Japanese art. Recent articles examine the painters Ogata Kōrin and Sakai Hōitsu and the photographer Domon Ken. His book Ogata Kōrin: Art in Early Modern Japan is available with Yale University Press.
This talk is part of the monthly lunchtime series Sneak Peek: New Research from the Freer and Sackler, where museum staff present in-depth, personal perspectives on and discuss ongoing research connected to works in the Freer and Sackler collections.
Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_n5-WL-0WQCaw6h0Lwzt14w
Image:
Detail, Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges), Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716), Japan, Edo period, after 1709, pair of six-panel folding screens, ink and color on gold leaf on paper, Purchase, Louisa Eldridge McBurney Gift, 1953, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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