Mia Curator Talk: “Minneapolis' New Clothes: Dressed by Nature—Textiles of Japan”

(Picture above) Japan, late 19th-early 20th century, Festival kimono decorated with carp ascending a waterfall made in Akita Prefecture (detail), cloth: cotton; shibori (shape resist), The John R. Van Derlip Fund and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment Fund established by the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundtion; purchase from the Thomas Murray Collection, 2019.20.84

Please join us for Curator Talk “Minneapolis’ New Clothes: Dressed by Nature—Textiles of Japan” on Thursday, June 30 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.

The Japanese archipelago is home to diverse cultures that made textiles in a kaleidoscope of materials and designs beyond the commonly known silk kimono. Dr. Andreas Marks, Head of Japanese and Korean Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, provides insight into the large special exhibition "Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan" that will be on view at Mia from June 25th until September 11th. For the first time, over 120 textiles from the Thomas Murray collection that the museum acquired in 2019 will be on view.

This exhibition will focus on the resourcefulness of humans to create textiles from local materials like fish skin, paper, elm bark, nettle, banana leaf fiber, hemp, wisteria, deerskin, cotton, silk, and wool. It will showcase rare and exceptional examples of robes, coats, jackets, vests, banners, rugs, and mats, made between around 1750 and 1930, including the royal dress of subtropical Okinawa, ceremonial robes of the Ainu from northern Japan and the Russian Far East, and folk traditions from throughout Japan.

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Dr. Andreas Marks is the Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese and Korean Art and director of the Clark Center for Japanese Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. From 2008 to 2013 he was the director and chief curator of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in California. He has a Ph.D. from Leiden University in the Netherlands and a master’s degree in East Asian Art History from the University of Bonn, Germany. A specialist of Japanese woodblock prints, he is the author of 16 books. In 2014 he received an award from the International Ukiyo‐e Society in Japan for his research. He has curated exhibitions in a variety of media from pre‐modern to contemporary art and visual culture at 38 museums. His most recent book on Hokusai's reknown Fuji series was published by Taschen last summer. His next book will introduce 100 different types of Japanese demons and ghosts and is said to be released this autumn.