内容提要
The Seattle Art Museum’s renowned permanent collection of Asian art has indisputable depth, especially when it comes to Japanese works. It is curious, therefore, that over the past seventy-eight years only a slight representation of woodblock prints has been assembled at the institution: just over one hundred works date from prior to the twentieth century. The popularity of ukiyo-e imagery among American museumgoers, and the historic connections between Seattle and the Pacific Rim, causes us to wonder why this should be the case. The promised gift of the ukiyo‑e collection of Allan and Mary Kollar, the subject of Fleeting Beauty: Japanese Woodblock Prints, is an important and deeply appreciated step in remedying this circumstance.
While the Seattle Art Museum has never mounted a complete survey of its own admittedly modest ukiyo-e holdings—mostly actor prints by Kuniyoshi and Kunisada—it has consistently presented scholarly exhibitions of this art form as part of its larger traveling exhibition program. The first of those exhibitions took place in 1935, shortly after the museum opened to the public, and featured “reproductions” of famous works by master printmakers. Subsequent projects included a major presentation of the James Michener Collection (1977), Rage, Power, and Fulfillment: The Male Journey in Japanese Prints (1989), and most recently, Larger than Life Heroes: Prints of Sumo Wrestling from the Donn F. Draeger Collection (2004). Fleeting Beauty is the first project based on ukiyo-e works to be organized by the Seattle Art Museum.
This undertaking has been enabled by the discernment of two of the region’s most dedicated collectors. I seize the opportunity of this foreword to record my personal appreciation for Allan and Mary Kollar not just for their longtime support of the Seattle Art Museum, which has been
substantial, but for their unyielding commitment to public education. The Kollars are inspiringly articulate about the value they place on sharing the highest-quality works, and interpretations of them, with diverse audiences. Thanks to their generosity, which extends beyond the promised donation of their collection to the Seattle Art Museum, we have been able to double our holdings of historic material. The gift of more than fifty ukiyo‑e images, and three artistically related painted scrolls, provided the impulse for the publication of this catalogue, which has been conceived to advance critical studies in a new area of research at the institution. In this respect, I would also like to record my gratitude to Colleen Kollar Zorn, the collectors’ daughter, who contributed her own photography to this book. As a family endeavor, the Kollars’ model of philanthropy and connoisseurship stands to benefit all of us significantly.
The catalogue that follows includes a text by Sebastian Izzard, who has served as a favorite consultant to the Kollar family as they have developed their ukiyo‑e collection. Indeed, Mr. Izzard participated in the identification of images best suited for donation to the permanent collection at SAM. I thank him for this, and for his perceptive essay on the trajectory and refinement of Allan and Mary’s collecting impulses. Catherine Roche, interim curatorial associate for Japanese and Korean art, in addition to organizing the project and writing the catalogue entries, has contributed an insightful essay that goes beyond the familiar accounts of “pictures of the floating world” as mere demonstrations of leisure, stylized beauty, and escapist fantasy. In contrast to those more formulaic readings, her analysis of these challenging works is rooted in their contemporary display of style and their meanings for Japanese viewers. For this contribution, and for her terrific commitment to this project, she has my lasting gratitude and admiration.
Mimi Gardner Gates deserves credit for so many of the good things that have happened at the Seattle Art Museum in recent years, and it gives me pleasure to recognize her, once again, for her role in conceiving Fleeting Beauty well before my arrival as director. Every exhibition that takes place at SAM enjoys the critical input and support of Chiyo Ishikawa, the Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art, and Fleeting Beauty is no exception. Chiyo worked closely with Catherine Roche and Zora Hutlova Foy, our gifted manager of exhibitions and publications, to ensure the highest standards of publication and presentation of these ukiyo‑e works. Chris Manojlovic, SAM’s creative exhibitions designer, took on the challenge of presenting the prints and paintings in a dynamic sequence at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Every staff member at SAM makes an important contribution to the projects we present. My colleagues know already, I hope, how much I appreciate their professionalism and their care for the works of art that we regularly bring to a worthy public in Seattle.
We are grateful to the Baillargeon family for supporting both the exhibition and the catalogue through the Katherine Agen Baillargeon Endowment. Additionally, we acknowledge our Annual Fund donors, whose consistent and generous support allows us to organize special exhibitions.
As a title for the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, Fleeting Beauty neatly captures the abiding aesthetic principles of ukiyo‑e imagery. Given the enduring nature of the Kollar gift, and the strong memory we hope this exhibition will produce for this creative community, I feel certain that any sense of fleetingness will likely soon give way to a permanent, broadly shared pride about this valuable project.
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