Zombie Parent's Guide: Walters Art Museum Temporary Exhibits

On a school day off, we went into Baltimore and visited The Walters Art Museum (near the Basilica). The kids enjoyed it as much as they could. For some things and at some times they have more stamina. We can do a whole art museum if it is a small art museum. The Walters is fairly large. We saw some temporary exhibits that were a lot of fun, even for the kids.

The Walters Art Museum

The first exhibit was Japanese Woodblock Prints (on display till January 6, 2019). Over 40 prints from the museum's collection are on display.

Entrance sign for the exhibit

The art is very stylized and distinctive. These prints are from Japan's Edo period (1615 to 1868) and represent the cultural exuberance of the capital city of Edo, now Tokyo.

Below is a print called "The Actors Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Kono Moronao and Nakamura Fukusuke I as Momoi Wakansanosuke" published by Uoya Eikichi in 1855. The artist was Utagawa Kunisada and the carver was Yokogawa Takejiro. Some of this information is on the print, which includes logos or inscriptions of the creators and publishers, partially to advertise the skills and partially as a form of copyright. Interestingly enough, there is no description of the roles they are playing. I guess viewers would just know from then-current pop culture what character they were playing and in what play.

The Actors... (1855)

From 1858 is "The Actor Iwai Kumesaburo III performing as the Girl Yae, later Seyama" published by Uoya Eikichi. Utagawa Kunisada was the artist and Yokogawa Takejiro was the carver.

The Actor Iwai Kumesaburo III... (1858)

Western artists in the late 1800s admired the woodblock works. Japan opened its ports to foreigners in 1859 so there was a natural outflow of products and art. French glass designer Eugene Rousseau adapted a woodblock image of a carp for the vase below.

Carp Vase (1878)

A popular way to collect prints was to make albums, such as "Lady Murasaki's Genji Cards" seen below. The illustrations are from the Tale of Genji written in the 1000s by Murasaki Shikibu. The story was rewritten and serialized during the 1830s by Ryutei Tanehiko. The Genji Cards were published by Tstaya Kichizo. The artist was Utagawa Kunisada II.

Lady Murasaki's Genji Cards (1857)

Closer look at one of the cards

Below is a triptych depicting 16th-century warriors putting their armor on. The pictures go from right to left. "A Group of Brave Warriors of the Takeda Clan" was published by Yamamotoya Heikichi in 1853 with art by Utagawa Sadahide.

A Group of Brave Warriors of the Takeda Clan (1853)

Nearby was a table for visitors to try their hand at creating art in the Japanese style. Small water brushes made strokes on special paper that would quickly dry out. It was hard to paint more than a few lines before the work vanished.

Showing how to do it

Working hard

The exhibit includes some "tools of the trade" used by artists to make the designs and the wood blocks. The first step was to draw the image on paper. The carver would use that image as a model when sculpting the block.

Artist's paper, brushes, and ink

More colorful inks

Carving tools

Another special exhibit until January 6, 2019, is The Return of the Buddha, which is not some action-packed sequel. It commemorates a statue that came back to the museum recently.

He's back!

The statue is a life-sized 6th-century lacquer Buddha. The statue was on loan to the Freer/Sackler gallery (the Asian art part of the Smithsonian) in Washington, D.C., where it was on display with other Buddhas.

The Walters's Buddha

Other Buddhas were available at the Freer/Sackler exhibit

The final temporary exhibit we saw was Chinese Snuff Bottles, on display through December 9, 2018 (so rush out quick if you want to see it!). The bottles are from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and are quite charming. Almost 250 bottles are on display but by this point the kids were ready to move on. I saw one or two of the displays.

Snuff bottles were used for powdered tobacco by the Chinese and Mongolians. Smoking tobacco was illegal back then. Powdered tobacco was allowed because it supposedly had medicinal value. The bottles were popular and served the same purpose as snuff boxes in Europe.