By: Ann Fink
View Photos from the Announcement
Community members and press received a first look at "Hokusai and Ukiyo-E: The Floating World," the next major art exhibition coming to College of DuPage's Cleve Carney Museum of Art at the McAninch Arts Center in summer 2025.
The exhibition will feature 50 original works by renowned artists from the Japanese Edo Period, along with several educational and interactive experiences and installations throughout the MAC. The exhibition is organized by the CCMA in collaboration with The Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art of Genoa and with the support of MondoMostre.
As with past major exhibitions, including ‘Frida Kahlo: Timeless’ and ‘WARHOL,’ the creative teams and designers of the MAC will create interactive exhibition experiences that help visitors connect with this enchanting era of Shoguns, Samurai and Geisha.
MAC Director and Exhibition Executive Director Diana Martinez
Featured artwork includes ten works by Hokusai, including “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” from the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” and 17 works by Hiroshige, known for his traditional woodblock prints, along with works by 15 of their contemporaries. The collection includes hand-painted hanging scrolls in paper and silk as well as elegant and detailed multi-colored woodblock prints as beautiful as brocade as their name nishiki-e indicates.
The opulent works are quintessential representations of the Japanese art form known as “Ukiyo-e,” or “floating world images,” in which artists depict an idealized world of grandeur, class, wit, style, and pleasure, created during a period when Japan was limiting international relationships to one port that is Nagasaki, offering a unique point of view. The scrolls, prints and fans created during this time brought international notoriety to Japan giving birth to the Japanism trend. When Japan did open its borders, these pieces fascinated and influenced the world’s artists including impressionists such as Monet and Degas and later Van Gogh.
“Art at this time was very intimate and often used as entertainment for home gathering, with themes of performing arts, courtly life, nature, and the vibrant urban culture of Edo,” said CCMA Curator Justin Witte. “Now 200 years later, the striking and graphic style of these images still feels fresh and innovative, inspiring contemporary artists such as Takashi Murakami and Hayao Miyazaki, as well as creators of manga and anime.”
In addition to the artwork, the exhibition will include: a historical area and timeline with multi-media elements; an outdoor Japanese garden; a children’s Edo art and anime area with coloring pages and activities; an interactive Edo Experience with Shogun and Kabuki garments and more.
“As with past major exhibitions, including ‘Frida Kahlo: Timeless’ and ‘WARHOL,’ the creative teams and designers of McAninch Arts Center will create interactive exhibition experiences that help visitors connect with this enchanting era of Shoguns, Samurai and Geisha, that are rich educational experiences and special events that enhance understanding and appreciation of the Japanese Edo era,” said MAC Director and Exhibition Executive Director Diana Martinez.
Tickets for “Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World” will be available this fall.