Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints
21 Sep 2024 – 6 Jul 2025
Level 2, Gallery 26
Free
Masami Teraoka, printed and published by Tyler Graphics, Catfish Envy, 1993, from the Hawaii Snorkel Series, 1992–93, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Kenneth E Tyler 2002 © the artist and Kenneth E Tyler
‘The people and props that I use are symbols of both the contemporary life I experience and of the venerable Japanese traditions I admire. I also look at my paintings as Kabuki plays, the ancient Japanese equivalent to movies. I am the director, and I have to be careful casting each actress and actor because the strength of each work depends on how I script, draw, and paint each one. I call my work Masami-za or Masami-theatre.’
About
Masami Teraoka painting the etching plate for Catfish Envy from the Hawaii Snorkel Series, Tyler Graphics artists' studio, Mount Kisco, New York, 1991. Kenneth E Tyler Collection archive, NGA Study Collection © photographer, Marabeth Cohen-Tyler
From the early 1970s Japanese-American artist Masami Teraoka adopted the traditional visual vocabulary of 17th–19th century Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints to comment on the world around him. These included reflections on contemporary themes such as globalisation, collisions between Asian and western cultures, and the AIDS crisis. Inspired notably by kabuki theatre prints and the ukiyo-e genres of bijin-ga [beautiful women], yūrei-zu [supernatural beings], and shunga [erotic prints], Teraoka created dramatic compositions rich in symbolism.
The National Gallery will present key examples of Teraoka’s ukiyo-e style works alongside historic ukiyo-e prints, delving into their visual, strategic and thematic connections. Leading ukiyo-e artists featured include Utagawa Kunisada, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Toyohara Kunichika and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Forming part of the National Gallery’s Kenneth E. Tyler Collection exhibition series, this display will focus on Teraoka’s Hawaii Snorkel Series, published by Tyler Graphics in 1992–93. Related trial proofs and archival materials will showcase the hybrid techniques and innovative approaches Tyler employed to help Teraoka realise his vision.
This exhibition will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the National Gallery’s seminal exhibition Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS, in which Teraoka featured and includes ephemera relating to the exhibition and associated activists’ works. The occasion will also be marked through the display of Teraoka's major folding screen AIDS Series/Makiki Heights Disaster 1988, which was recently acquired and has never been presented in Australia.
Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints is a Kenneth E. Tyler Collection exhibition.
Curators: Beatrice Thompson, Associate Curator, Asian and Pacific Art
Kira Godoroja-Prieckaerts, Kenneth E. Tyler Assistant Curator, International Prints and Drawings
Viewer advice: Please note some artworks in this exhibition depict sexual acts. Viewer discretion is advised.
Events
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Sat 15 Feb 2025, 11am
