Masterpieces of Japanese art in Polish collections

Masterpieces of Japanese Art in Polish Collections, an exhibition prepared on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Manggha Museum in Krakow, will present ancient Japanese art, primarily from the Edo period (1603–1868), as well as – in a few examples – from the Meiji period (1868–1912): ukiyo-e woodblock prints, painting and sculpture, textiles, ceramics, bronzes, lacquerware, and military artifacts. The exhibition will showcase icons of Japanese art that radically changed Western art.

Japanese masterpieces from Polish collections will be presented in eight thematic spaces: Prologue, Import and Export illustrate the presence and fascination with Japanese art in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries; Woman, Warrior, Spectacle, Spirituality, and Nature bring us closer to a different, inspiring culture.

The exhibition of Japanese art in Polish collections also aims to showcase what is most interesting and valuable – to highlight the diversity and richness of Polish japonica. Hence the titular “masterpieces” – little known or completely unknown until now, which today have the opportunity to emerge, brought out from the shadows of museum storage. The criterion of masterpieces applied to Japanese art was intuitively used from a Western perspective, treating it as a helpful, universally understood tool for perceiving an “other” tradition.

The specifically Japanese criteria of beauty are fundamentally at odds with the European tradition, which is based on the classical ideal of antiquity. Typical values of Japanese aesthetics create a system that is clearly opposed to the traditional aesthetics of the West – with its concept of ideal beauty based on harmony, symmetry, rhythm, the principle of mimesis, the postulate of the permanence of art, and the division into high art and applied art. The Japanese concept of beauty is strongly marked by a sense of transience and the impermanence of things, as well as the associated feeling of melancholy. It is a mysterious beauty, and the typical for this art ambiguity, vagueness, and multiplicity of meanings determine its intuitive reception. Beautiful objects: gold-dusted lacquer, glittering kimono, gilded folding screen, placed in the semi-darkness of Japanese interiors (never in bright light!), should be characterized by restrained elegance. From Zen philosophy emerges the concept of refined simplicity, which values naturalness and the “truth” of the material (e.g., raw wood, bamboo, stone); it emphasizes the value of poverty, as well as the wear of objects, which, due to the passage of time, acquire a noble patina; it accentuates a preference for muted colors and natural earth tones. Irregularity and asymmetry are also regarded by the Japanese as categories of beauty. Aesthetics encompasses all spheres of life in Japan; there is no division into pure art and everyday objects. Thus, simple tea utensils are elevated to the status of art… In Japanese tradition, everyday life, subordinated to aesthetic categories, becomes art.

Curator: Anna Król

EDUCATIONAL OFFER: for kindergartens, for primary schools grades 1-3, for primary schools grades 4-6, for middle schools, for high schools, for adults, for families, program for guests with disabilities

CONTACT: http://muzeum.stalowawola.pl/pl/kontakt

TICKET PRICES: http://muzeum.stalowawola.pl/pl/wizyty/ceny-biletow