The Cleveland Museum of Art will present Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan which features over 50 masterpieces of modern Japanese art from the Tokyo National Museum. Exhibition highlights include six objects considered ‘Important Cultural Properties of Japan.’ These include Dancing Lady Maiko Girl by Kuroda Seiki and Portrait of Reiko by Kishida Ryusei as well as other important works in Japanese modern art history such as Mount Fuji Rising above Clouds by Yokoyama Taikan and Spring Rain by Shimomura Kanzan. This will be one of the largest exhibitions focused on Japanese modern art on view in the United States since World War II.

Modern Japanese artists re-formed and explored the visual presentation of the traditional arts from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, inspired by their cross-cultural explorations of Western art and its paradigms. The masterworks assembled in Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan reflect a confluence of influences drawn from the Japanese traditional style of painting in concert with the emerging crafts tradition and Western styles of oil painting and sculpture.

By reinterpreting tradition in Japanese modern art, they maintained the continuity between the pre-modern Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji period as well as integrating cultural influences from the West. Japanese artists invented new traditions for a new age employing a variety of mediums, including painting, crafts and sculpture. To further cultural exchange and collaboration between the two institutions, the Tokyo National Museum will present Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art from January 15 to February 23, 2014, and will feature highlights of the Cleveland Japanese art collection. The most important works are from the Kamaura-Muromachi to the end of the Edo period, such as Dragon and Tiger by Shukei Sesson (a pair of folding screens). Also included in the exhibition are select works from the museum’s European collection. Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art will travel to the Kyusyu National Museum from July 8 to August 31, 2014.