Thursday 19 November, 2020
6:00pm GMT
Speakers
Professor Nicole Rousmaniere (Sainsbury Institute)
Uchida Hiromi (Japan Culture Expo)
We are pleased to announce that this month’s Third Thursday Lecture will be presented online. You can enjoy the lecture live from the comfort of your own home, complete with slides and an audience Q&A. We look forward to seeing you there virtually, and we particularly welcome new attendees.
The Tokyo National Museum has staged an impressive exhibition titled Kôgei 2020, the Art of Crafting Beauty from Nature bringing together the best of Japanese contemporary art crafts as part of the Japan Cultural Expo. Sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Japan Arts Council, The Yomiuri Shimbun and the Tokyo National Museum, select works from top artists from all ages were displayed in the impressive Hyôkeikan [‘The Building to Express Joy’], originally built to celebrate the marriage of Emperor Taisho in 1908 in Meiji Western style. The visionary architect Ito Toyo was commissioned to display the kôgei works in a fresh way to resonate with the historic architecture, the artworks and nature, the theme of the Japan Cultural Expo. The results are compelling and brought to the fore challenges and potentials in the display of these types of works. Uchida Hiromi is a representative for the organizing body for this exhibition and she will be in discussion with Nicole Rousmaniere, research Director for the Sainsbury Institute. Together they will talk about kôgei, display and what we can learn from this exhibition.
About the Speakers
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere is currently the Research Director at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, and Professor of Japanese Arts at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. She was until recently the IFAC Handa Curator of Japanese Art at the Department of Asia, British Museum, and was the lead curator on the Citi Exhibition Manga held in the Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries, British Museum from 23 May to 26 August 2019. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1998. In 2007 she was the lead curator for Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan at the British Museum. In 2010 she helped facilitate and translate the British Museum’s first manga, Hoshino Yukinobu’s Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure. In 2012 she wrote Vessels of Influence: China and the Birth of Porcelain in Medieval and Early Modern Japan (Bloomsbury Academic). Her recent translation of Tsuji Nobuo’s History of Art in Japan was published by Tokyo University Press and won the Japanese Translator’s award prize for 2018. In 2019 it has be reissued as a paperback from Columbia University Press.
Uchida Hiromi worked at the Sainsbury Institute and the British museum for 15 years, during those years being involved with caring the Japanese collection and presenting a number of exhibitions and programme on Japanese theme. She is currently a coordinator of a special exhibition of Japanese kogei, which is part of the nationwide Japan Culture Expo which launched last year to celebrate Tokyo 2020. The exhibition opens at the Tokyo National Museum in September.
How to book
Booking is essential. Use our booking form or email us.
We will send you an email containing a link for joining us before the event. To view the lecture or participate in the Q&A, please click on the link provided and enter your details when prompted. We recommend using Google Chrome web browser.
Cancellations
We are currently adjusting to remote working, and as such we will not be able to cancel your place at this event. If you do not plan to attend this online event, please disregard subsequent emails.
If you have any questions or concerns about this event, please contact us.
This event is part of the Japan-UK Season of Culture 2019-2020
Image: Kogei 2020 – the Art of Crafting Beauty from Nature at the Hyokeikan gallery, Tokyo National Museum (21 Sept. – 15 Nov. 2020)
The Third Thursday Lecture series is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Yakult UK.