Black and White: Japanese Modern Art

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calligrapher Inoue Yūichi

SEPTEMBER 30, 2017–JUNE 3, 2018

 

Black and White: Japanese Modern Art
Ko (Filial Piety), 1961, Inoue Yūichi

Centered around a newly acquired, large-scale work by calligrapher Inoue Yūichi (1916–85), a new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), showcases a selection of avant-garde works in the monochrome aesthetic shared widely in Japan and beyond during the postwar period. This monochromatic sensibility is rooted in Zen Buddhism, which values simplicity and austerity, and remains influential today. The works in the exhibition are the results of transnational exchanges between Japanese artists like Inoue and their American Expressionist contemporaries, including Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock, who drew inspiration from Asian calligraphy for their gestural paintings. Among the nine works on view are prints, ceramics and sculpture, primarily drawn from the MFA’s collection.

 

 

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