The Price Collection JAKUCHU and The Age of Imagination The Etsuko and Joe Price Collection based in California is world-renowned for its superb Edo period paintings. The Exhibition entitled The Price Collection-Jakuchû and the Age of Imagination will be held at the Tokyo National Museum (Ueno Park, Tokyo) from July 4th through August 27th, 2006. Some fifty years ago, Joe Price became fascinated by, and began to collect, paintings by the individualist artists of the Edo period, a field ignored by the art historians of the time. Mr. Price dubbed his collection and his foundation the Shin’enkan, borrowing one of the studio names of Itô Jakuchû (1716-1800), an individualist painter whose popularity has grown in recent years. Today the Price Collection centers around a superb group of works by Jakuchû, along with major works by Jakuchû ’s other Kansai region contemporaries such as Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799) and Mori Sosen (1747-1821), along with Edo-based Rimpa artists Sakai Hôitsu (1761-1828) and Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858). The marvels of the collection include paintings by ukiyo-e artists and other painters who have recently attracted great attention from art lovers. This exhibition presents a selection of 101 works chosen jointly by Mr. Price and the Tokyo National Museum staff from more than 600 works in the collection. The exhibition is divided into five sections, with the paintings arranged according to their artistic lineage. A special feature of this exhibition is its avoidance of glass cases in one of the galleries and use of careful lighting effects to create a display environment similar to an Edo period viewing experience. This unusual installation technique is based on Price’s viewing aesthetic, summed up in his phrase, “there were no glass cases in the Edo period.” This exhibition is Price’s gift to the Japanese audiences in the hope that viewers will find genuine enjoyment in the works and rediscover the wonders of Edo period paintings. It is our hope that the exhibition will be an unfettered enjoyment of truly unique and fascinating paintings. The main exhibition is joined by a companion exhibition, “Family Gallery: How do you see Japanese Arts from the Price Collection?” featuring eight works from the Price Collection in a special display with educational materials and explanatory texts. Tokyo National Museum Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. Who is Joe Price? Joe Price is the person who early realized the intriguing nature of Itô Jakuchû, and whose first encounter with Jakuchû has become almost legendary. Price visited New York with his father’s friend Frank Lloyd Wright. Along with being a world-renowned architect, Wright was also a collector of Asian art, and Price and Wright visited an antique shop together. There Price was fascinated by an ink painting of grapes. He promptly abandoned his original intention to buy a sport car to celebrate his graduation, choosing to buy the grape painting instead, without even knowing the name of its painter. This took place in 1953, when Price was 24 years old, which marked the beginning of his collection of Edo period paintings. Without knowing the name or biography of the painters, Price simply collected those paintings that appealed to his eye and tastes. His unique aesthetics and specific tastes pervade the collection, and not surprisingly, that first Jakuchû grape painting was soon joined by many more Jakuchû masterpieces. Fascinating Aspects of the Price Collection When Edo period painting is mentioned, generally the Edo Kanô school,which was began by Kanô Tan’yû, the Rimpa school of Tawaraya Sôtatsu and Ogata Kôrin, and the ukiyo-e woodblock prints and literati paintings of the late Edo period come to mind. The Price Collection, however, has few works by these artists. The collection’s core is found in the works of Itô Jakuchû and his fellow late 18th century Kyoto painters. The Rimpa works in the collection present a masterful array of works by post-Kôrin Edo Rimpa artists such as the late 18th century painter, Sakai Hôitsu. All of the paintings in the Price Collection reveal their artists’ unique views of natural imageies and highly individualistic methods of expression. These painters were long forgotten by post-World War art historians. Today they are once again attracting attention, as Japanese art collectors and scholars follow Price’s lead in their rediscovery. The Price Collection is a powerful, intriguing collection that transforms existing views of Edo period paintings. Message from Joe Price The art in the Price Collection is free from the overtones of religion, intellectual nuances, or overbearing stylistic conventions. The works are so coupled with the heart of Nature that can they appeal to people from all walks of life – no scholarly explanations needed. This I hope explains how an engineer from Oklahoma could fall so in love with the images. I assembled the collection simply by appreciating the visual appeal of the paintings. The quality of beauty and precision of line were dominant, consistent aspects of the art. I collected the art uninhibited by outside teachings. My inability to speak or read Japanese certainly turned out to be an advantage, for it forced me to select the screens and scrolls based on the artists’ skills, not their seals or signatures. Even today, when I find a painting, I seldom ask who created it. When a work has great quality, a great artist produced it. Serious Edo artists received unparalleled and meticulous training, and with their skill, ability, and great pride in their accomplishments, their paintings should have some mark, some stroke beyond the capabilities of ordinary men. There is no need to look at a seal to know that a scroll was created by a master. What may have started out as an insignificant hobby has now turned into something much more meaningful to me. My collection gave my life a new purpose, for I wanted the public to experience for themselves the same immense joy that this art brings to me. I hope people can see my collection as much more than an accumulation of scrolls and screens. It is like an album of images to be compared side by side to not just look at the different works, but to learn from them as well. I want everyone to examine the differences between the great masters, their gifted students, and those that, in the process of learning, attempted to copy their works. The Etsuko and Joe Price Collection is not intended to be seen as just a collection – it hopefully should be an experience. Exhibition Title: The Price Collection - JAKUCHU and The Age of Imagination Period: July 4 – August 27, 2006 Venue: Heiseikan, Tokyo National Museum 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-8712 Japan Time: 9:30 – 17:00 Saturdays, Sundays, Holidays until 18:00, Fridays until 20:00 (last entry 30 minutes before closing) Closed on Monday (except for Monday, July 17 and August 14) and July 18 (Tuesday) Organizers: Tokyo National Museum / Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. Special Collaboration: SHIN’ENKAN FOUNDATION Endorsement: Embassy of the United States in Japan Japan America Society of Southern California Sponsorship: NEC / NIPPONKOA INSURANCE Collaboration: Los Angels County Museum of Art / Japan Airlines / First Design System Information: Hello Dial 03-5777-8600 (in Japanese only) Exhibition Official Website: http://www.jakuchu.jp/ Tokyo National Museum Website: http://www.tnm.jp/ Admissions: Adults ¥1300(¥1100/¥1000) Univ. and High School students ¥900(¥700/¥600) ・Prices shown in ( ) indicate Advance / Group (more than 20 persons) tickets. ・Elementary and junior high school students are admitted free. ・Ticket prices include admission to regular exhibitions. ・Persons with physical or mental disabilities are allowed free entry with one accompanying guest. ・Advance Tickets will be on sale from May 14 at e-Ticket Pia, Lawson Ticket, CN Playguide, JR East Reservation Ticket Office (Midori-no-madoguchi) and View Plaza at major stations, Circle–K, Sankus, JTB, and E-Plus. Educational Program: Family Gallery: How do you see Japanese Arts from the Price Collection?” Period: July 4 – August 27, 2006 Location: Tokyo National Museum, Heiseikan Organizer: Tokyo National Museum For inquiries: Jakuchu exhibition Publicity Office(in Kyodo Pubulic Relations Co., Ltd.) Contact: Mr. Murata, Mr. Sakurai, Ms. Mitsui Dowa Bldg. Ginza 7-2-22, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8158 TEL: 03-3575-9823 FAX: 03-3574-0316 E-mail: [email protected] Outline of the Exhibition and Highlights of Each Section This exhibition features 101 paintings selected by the Tokyo National Museum curators and Joe Price from the approximately 600 works in the Price Collection. The exhibition is divided into five sections based on the artistic lineages of the painters whose works are displayed. Chapter 1. Orthodox Painting During the Edo period, a painting school system that engaged in traditional style paintings was formed based on either blood relationships or teacher-student relationships between painters. The Kanô School and Tosa School painters were the main examples of such painting school system. Within the rigid organization of the social order by the Tokugawa shogunate and its shogun-daimyô ruled clan system, these schools formed the painting orthodoxy of the day and were the “official painters” in service to the imperial court and the shogunal government. This system and its rigorously controlled methods of painting production could make their paintings become too conservative and lose their sense of free creativity. Indeed, this might be called the fate that burdened these painters locked into their social caste and position. This section introduces works produced in these specific school-styles until the middle of the 18th century. While the works in this section were painted in the typical painting styles of their period, these superb works also reveal the individual emphasis of their painters, reflecting the Price Collection’s focus on expression over famous painter name.