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Crows

Photo: Seiji Shirono, National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo

Crows

early 17th century

One of the most iconic works in the museum’s collection, this pair of screens presents a striking image of ninety black crows against gold background. The screens capture the motion of the crow so cinematically: one could almost see them taking flight or hear their cawing. Its authorship remains a mystery because of the absence of a signature, but whoever painted these screens clearly observed the bird carefully and was a master in rendering its motions and poses.
Pair of six panel screens; ink and gold on paper
61 9/16 x 139 5/16 in. (156.3 x 353.8 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
36.21.1
Photo: Seiji Shirono, National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryBoston, Massachusetts, Yamanaka & Co., Yamanaka Exhibition of Japanese Buddhist Art, 1936.

Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Japanese Painted Screens, 1953.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum, 1960.

Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Exhibition of Japanese Screens, 1964.

Los Angeles, California, UCLA Art Council and Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, Birds, Blossoms, Bees and Bugs - The Nature Of Japan, Mar. 30 - May 23, 1976.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Cranes: Treasures of Japanese Art, Feb. 5 - July 12, 1987.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Masterpieces of Japanese Art from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Nov. 1, 1998 - Mar. 1, 1999.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Flights of Fancy: Natural and Supernatural Images In Japanese Art, December 9, 1998 - August 1, 1999.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Signs of Fortune, Symbols of Immortality, Nov. 2, 2000 - July 25, 2001.

New York, New York, Japan Society, Arts of Kazari: Japan on Display, 15th - 19th Centuries, Oct. 15, 2001 - Apr. 13, 2003.

Tokyo, Japan, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Screens from the Nezu Collection, Apr. 15, 2006 - Apr. 26, 2006.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Five Masterpieces of Asian Art: The Story of their Conservation, May 5 - Sept. 9, 2007.

Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Luminous: The Art of Asia, Oct. 13, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Tabaimo: Utsutsushi Utsushi, Nov. 11, 2016 - Feb. 26, 2017.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view Dec. 10, 2021 - July 24, 2022].
Published ReferencesMiller, Angela, Buddha's Birds, Shambala Sun, January 2015, pp. 64-65.

Explore the Art of Luminous: Crows Screen. YouTube video, 2011. http://youtu.be/YNhbiewknek.

Ronnberg, Ronn, Editor, The Book of Symbols, Taschen, 2010, illustrated pg. 250

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun, catalogue number 42

The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Journal, Autumn 2008, pg. 11

Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures, London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007, pp. 20-21, illus. p. 20

Mathes, Charles, Treasures of American Museums, Mallard Press, 1991: 4

Selected Works, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1991, pp. 194-195

Hubbard, Guy, Art in Action, Coronado Publishers, Inc., 1987. p. 70 illus.

Hagen, Margaret A., Varieties of Realism: Geometries of Representational Art, Cambridge University Press, 1986. p. 244, fig. 9.4

Fuller, Richard E., Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 105a and b

Morgan, Whitney N., Museum Acquisitions, in Parnassus, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 1938), pp. 26-29

Wolff, John Gendo, Sensei. The Driftwood Shrine: Discovering Zen in American Poetry. Richmond Hill: The Sumeru Press Inc., 2016; p. 92

Grantmakers in the Arts. GIA Reader Volume 24, no. 1 (Winter 2013): cover

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