Through the Seasons

Japanese Art in Nature

June 7–October 18, 2009

Suzuki Kiitsu

Detail of Morning Glories, Edo period, early 19th century

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Seymour Fund, 1954

Seasonal change and depictions of the natural world have formed a core in the repertoire of Japanese artists throughout the ages. This exhibition brings together screens and scrolls from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries and displays them with contemporary ceramics, each work emphasizing the inspirational role of nature in Japanese art. Drawn from both public institutions and private collections, many of these works have never before been exhibited.

This exhibition was organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and is supported by the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation. The catalogue is supported by Parnassus Foundation, courtesy of Jane and Raphael Bernstein.