Exhibit of the week: Beyond Golden Clouds

Art Institute of Chicago

Through Sept. 27

Among the Art Institute of Chicago’s “rarely seen masterpieces” are its exquisite Japanese screens, said the Chicago Sun-Times. Extremely fragile and sensitive to light, these sweeping landscapes and decorative designs are rarely exhibited, making the museum’s current “comprehensive view of the art of the folding screen” nearly unprecedented. “The sampling spans Japanese history,” from the 16th century through the 20th, said Chris Miller in the Chicago New City. Their intricate decorative schemes range from court scenes, Zen landscapes, and Buddhist religious subjects to “Japanese versions of modern life, psychedelic art deco, and eventually conceptual art.” No matter the time period, these delicately constructed objects have the power to dominate a room “and immerse a viewer into their imaginative visions.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The images are of “such expansiveness” that you typically can’t take in a whole work at a glance, said Lee Lawrence in The Wall Street Journal. Built using paper hinges, the large screens zig and zag, “popping every other panel into view.” A 1602 landscape by Kaiho Yusho has almost naturalistic effects, including “the watery outline of a river that physically recedes as the panel angles away” from a viewer standing beside it. But to really appreciate the detail of these works, you may have to kneel. For “it is from a seated position that most of the screens were originally (and best) savored.” The front of Noguchi Shohin’s The Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion “features a landscape in classical style, while on its back geese flit among reeds against a silver background.” Faced straight on, such a work practically seems to surround you.

After a while, you may take the craftsmanship for granted and begin “concentrating instead on the screens’ subject matter,” said Lauren Weinberg in Time Out Chicago. Meditative nature scenes, such as a 17th-century example showing “adorable deer” frolicking among leaves, are just what we expect from Japanese art. So it’s slightly surprising to see the same delicate techniques employed in “several boisterous works,” which chronicle everyday life or “illustrate the visits of ‘Southern barbarians’ (Portuguese sailors).” In most post-1900 examples, the artists leave behind traditional Japanese subject matter entirely, in favor of Western-style formal experimentation. “It’s a shame half of these pieces come off as mediocre abstract sculptures.” Still, there’s not much else to dislike about this exhibition, considering that “almost all of its works are masterpieces.”