From November 7 2000 until February 3 2001, The Ruth and Sherman Lee Center for Japanese Art at the Clark Center is hosting an exhibition of later Edo period Japanese hanging scrolls and folding screen paintings influenced by the literati paintings of China.

Nanga, meaning literally "Southern Painting," is one of the five most important painting genres in Edo Japan (1603-1868), yet until recently has been relatively ignored in art historical studies. Nanga artists sought to emulate the Chinese scholar's character and spirit in their works. According to the scholar's ideal, these paintings were not made for sale or mere decorative pleasure, but to express the artist's style and inner spirit. On view are calligraphies and paintings by some of the major artists working in this style, as well as by other lesser known, but equally as significant scholar-painters.

The exhibition combines works from the Center's permanent collection, as well as scrolls from the esteemed collection of Professor Stephen Addiss and Audrey Seo. Our current exhibition has been designed to illustrate how the Lee Center's potential acquisition of the Addiss-Seo Collection of Nanga paintings could complement the current holdings within the Center's permanent collection (derived primarily from the collection of noted East Asian painting scholar James Cahill, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley). (Visitor info)