The Land to the North: Paintings of Ainu in the Edo Period
Michael Pronko
The history of Hokkaido is about as violent as that of the rest of Japan. In 1789 an uprising at a trading post by Ainu, the indigenous people of the island, against oppressive Japanese merchants and rulers was brutally suppressed and the instigators were executed. The incident, known as the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion, was commemorated by a series of rare paintings made of Ainu chieftains who collaborated with the Japanese against the rebels. These 12 spectacular portraits form the core of a special exhibition of Ishuretsuzo, or images of Ainu, at the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, a city not far from Narita Airport. more...
Tradition with a Twist: The Ceramic Art of Yuriko Matsuda
Alice Gordenker
Call her works playful. Call them sensuous. Call them decorative, even, and ceramic artist Yuriko Matsuda won't mind a bit. "It's such a shame that the term 'decoration' is so often applied as a pejorative," Matsuda said in a recent interview, using the Japanese word soshoku. "The implication seems to be that anything that is decorative or ornamental can't be real art, because it lacks depth and meaning. I couldn't disagree more." more...
Adhering to the Concept: Yoko Ono at MOT
Alan Gleason
Yoko Ono needs no introduction; she is a global celebrity who has attracted praise and opprobrium in equal parts. The accolades tend to cite her commitment to progressive political causes and her success as a woman negotiating the male-dominated milieus of contemporary art and, later, of pop music. The negativity usually revolves around her marriage to John Lennon, whose romance with Ono was blamed early on for the breakup of the Beatles and whose coattails she has often been accused of riding on, both in life and death. All of the hype, good and bad, obscures the fact that long before she met Lennon, Ono had already established herself as a pioneering conceptual artist. more...
