International Art News

Japanese, Esoteric Buddhist Bodhisattva, c. 1131–74, color and ink on paper, the Kimiko and John Powers Collection of Japanese Art. - Hester + Hardaway Photographers

From June 10, 2012 to September 23, 2012 – Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Collectors Kimiko and John Powers began buying Japanese artwork in the 1960s. Over the next four decades they amassed 300 objects, building one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Japanese art outside of Japan. The MFAH presents 85 selections from their holdings in Unrivalled Splendor: The Kimiko and John Powers Collection of Japanese Art. The last exceptional collection of Japanese art in private hands, the Powers Collection is renowned for its extraordinary scale and quality, and the exhibition provides a rare chance to see these remarkable examples in the Houston region.

Shokado Shojo and Hori Kyan, Crested Mynah on Oak Branch, 1637, ink on paper, the Kimiko and John Powers Collection of Japanese Art. - Hester + Hardaway Photographers

Unrivaled Splendor showcases some of the earliest known examples of Buddhist art in Japan; narrative scroll paintings; beautiful examples of calligraphy; screens embellished with gold and silver; sketches; sculptures; and objects of lacquer, pearl, and silver. The wide array, from courtly to popular works of art, reveals overlapping themes in Japanese art.

These diverse and important objects tell the fascinating story of Japan’s artistic development and its enduring cultural heritage. Accompanying the exhibition is an illustrated catalogue, published by the MFAH and distributed by Yale University Press.

Museum of Fine Arts

Portrait of the Imperial Guard Uksiltu / Keshiki Batu Luwuke Shier ( 伍 克 什 尔 图 wu ke shi er tu), the 29th of 100 portraits of Meritorious Officers participating in the East-Turkestan campaign (1755-1759) Ink on silk Qianglong seal, dated 1760 with honorific calligraphy in Manchu and Chinese by Liu Tong xun (1700-1773) Image 60 x 38 in Private collection

From October 22, 2011 to February 19, 2012 – Norton Museum of Art
The Emperors Orders: Designs from the Qianlong Imperial Workshop (1736 – 1796)
This exhibition features 10 objects in various media–painting, jade, ceramic, glass, and metalwork–all created for the greatest art collector in 18th century China, the Qianlong Emperor. Works from the Norton Museum’s own collection are featured and accompanied by important loans representing superlative examples of works produced in or from designs provided by the Imperial Palace Workshop. Being extremely inquisitive, this emperor invited many foreign artists to work at his court, including Mughal jade carvers, and Jesuit priest painters and glassmakers.

Norton Hours

26 of June 2010 to 8 of August 2010 – Dudenin Public Art Gallery
Albrecht Dürer is considered one of the greatest printmakers of all time, admired for his technical brilliance and innovation, and for his bold imaginative approach. His work was inspired by the social and religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, by classical stories, and by his own interpretation of Biblical texts. Dürer bridged the gap between the Gothic tradition of art in northern Europe and the new ideas of the Renaissance in the south, and drew on both influences in his printmaking. In his woodcuts and engravings he used ‘dynamic calligraphy’ – complex combinations of curved lines that swelled and tapered, and defined light and shade, and surface texture. His system of cross-hatched lines convincingly depicted shape and form, giving the human body a sculptural quality. This exhibition features 26 works from Albrecht Dürer and seven other distinguished German print makers. Developed and presented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa  Map

Gallery Hours