Enfilade

Opening later this month at Mia:

Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 25 June — 11 September 2022

Festival kimono decorated with carp ascending a waterfall made in Akita Prefecture (detail), late 19th–early 20th century, cotton (Minneapolis: Mia, purchase from the Thomas Murray Collection, 2019.20.84).

The Japanese archipelago is home to extremely diverse cultures that made clothing and other textile objects in a kaleidoscope of materials and designs. This exhibition will focus on the resourcefulness of humans to create textiles from local materials like fish skin, paper, elm bark, nettle, banana leaf fiber, hemp, wisteria, deerskin, cotton, silk, and wool. It will showcase rare and exceptional examples of robes, coats, jackets, vests, banners, rugs, and mats, made between around 1750 and 1930, including the royal dress of subtropical Okinawa, ceremonial robes of the Ainu from northern Japan and the Russian Far East, and folk traditions from throughout Japan.

Now on view at Mia:

The Three Perfections: Image, Poem, and Calligraphy in Chinese Painting
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 18 December 2021 — 4 December 2022

Zheng Xie (1693–1765), Qing dynasty, Bamboo and Rocks, detail, ca. 1760, 68 x 39 inches, ink on paper (Minneapolis: Mia, gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton 95.54.2).

Western viewers are often curious about why Chinese artists write on their paintings and what the characters say. This exhibition answers such questions and explores the idea of integrating fine painting, poetry, and calligraphy, known as the ‘Three Perfections’, in a single artwork.

In traditional China, painting was regarded as ‘silent poetry’, and poetry as ‘painting with sound’. Both could only be manifested through the ‘art of handwriting’—calligraphy. Scholars and scholar-artists used calligraphic brushstrokes in their paintings and considered their artworks to be vehicles of self-expression. As a result, painting was not only considered the only art pure and lyrical enough to stand on an equal footing with poetry and contemplative thought, but also something through which one could experience sight, sound, smell, touch, and emotions.

Francesco Guardi, The Return of the Buncintoro from S. Nicolò di Lido (detail), ca. 1778, pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk
(Minneapolis: Mia, the John R. Van Derlip Trust Fund 2021.25)

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Now on view at Mia:

Venice in the 1700s
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 22 January — 16 October 2022

By the 1700s, the once mighty seafaring republic of Venice had been in decline for 300 years. Yet the island city still had one undiminished power—magic. Grand palaces, churches, flotillas of elegant gondolas floated above luminous reflections. Intricate systems of canals and walkways offered endless unexpected perspectives. Centuries of exquisite art could be found everywhere. With much support from tourists who flocked to see the city’s wonders, Venice’s artistic tradition continued to flourish. Three great artists and their families dominated: Antonio Canale (known as Canaletto), Giambattista Tiepolo, and Francesco Guardi. Mia has long had fine prints and drawings by the first two. This presentation celebrates the recent addition of Mia’s first outstanding Guardi drawing.