Christopher Benfey, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English, Mount Holyoke College; author The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan
Cultivated Bostonians of the Gilded Age, including connoisseurs and collectors closely associated with the MFA, fell in love with Japanese art and culture soon after Japan opened its borders to the West. These Bostonians, eager to learn from Japanese artists like Hokusai, sought to conserve a vanishing civilization. Through examples from the Museum’s collection of Japanese art, Benfey explores this “ironic love affair” between two contrasting nations and cultures.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015