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Plum, Pine, and Bamboo: Seasonal
and Spiritual Paths in Japanese Art
Ackland Art Museum
October 19, 2003 - January 4, 2004
The namesakes
of this show, the "three friends of winter,"
plum, pine, and bamboo, symbolize in East Asia the virtues
of the ideal scholar, purity of spirit, longevity, and
flexibility. The plum tree perseveres through winter,
blossoming white afresh through the snow. The pine tree
endures evergreen throughout the seasons, and bamboo,
always green and flexible, bends in difficulty, but
does not break. The Ackland Art Museum's collection
of Japanese art has grown through the efforts and vision
of a scholar who embodies all three of these qualities,
Dr. Sherman E. Lee. This exhibition honors Dr. Lee,
a world-renowned scholar of Asian art, and his contributions
to the Ackland in guiding the creation of a collection
that not only benefits the people of North Carolina,
but also enhances the overall quality of Japanese art
available for display and study in the United States.
The centerpiece of this exhibition is a recent addition
to the collection, a six-panel folding screen (byobu)
decorated with birds and flowers of autumn and winter
and attributed to the Zen Buddhist master painter, Sesshu
Toyo (1420 - 1506). Acquired by the Ackland on the recommendation
of Dr. Lee, this painting has undergone conservation
for over two years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York. This important work of art premieres publicly
in Plum, Pine, and Bamboo, perhaps for the first-time
in its five hundred year existence.
This screen forms the centerpiece of Plum, Pine, and
Bamboo, which highlights twenty-three works of art from
the Ackland Collection including hanging scrolls, hand
scrolls, folding screens, print albums, ceramics, and
sculpture, ranging in date from the Kamakura (1185 -1333)
through the Meiji (1868 - 1912) periods. These works
present seasonal and spiritual themes, two elements
in Japanese culture essential to a harmonious life. |
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