Reflections of Reality in Japanese Art

Sherman Lee's final exhibition at the Cleveland Museum (March 16–May 1, 1983) is one of the few exhibitions of Oriental art to be conceptually based rather than representing a period, school, or medium. Reflections of Reality in Japanese Art explores that fascinating and theoretically dangerous question: What is real? In many ways, this show is the counterpart to Japanese Decorative Style, an influential exhibition organized by the Cleveland Museum in 1961. The notion that Japanese art has been primarily decorative has persisted since that time, despite considerable evidence to the contrary from the wide range of paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, lacquerware, and other mediums over the course of Japan's long artistic history. In contrast to the decorative, Lee here explores the realistic approach taken by many Japanese artists over the centuries; the current exhibition comprises paintings and sculpture from approximately 3,000 B.C. to the end of the nineteenth century. A smaller exhibition of Japanese prints is also on view.