OPENING FEATURED EXHIBITIONS
Sōtatsu: Making Waves
October 24, 2015-January 31, 2016 #sotatsu
Interviews Julian Raby, director; Jim Ulak, senior curator of Japanese art
Media Preview Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Resources exhibition website; press release
Tawaraya Sōtatsu (act. ca. 1600-40) is one of the most influential yet elusive figures in the history of Japanese visual culture. At a moment of rapid social transition in the early seventeenth century, Sōtatsu, a commoner who owned a Kyoto fan shop, interacted with a sophisticated elite and transformed fragments of the past into a recognizable yet revolutionary anchor of cultural identity. About three hundred years later, Freer Gallery of Art founder Charles Lang Freer played a major role in introducing Sōtatsu to the Western world.
Sōtatsu: Making Waves is the first in-depth examination of this artist in a Western context. The exhibition convenes approximately seventy works, including Sōtatsu masterpieces from Japanese, European, and US collections, as well as later homage works that demonstrate his long-ranging influence. Two of Sōtatsu’s most important paintings, the Freer’s Waves at Matsushima and Dragons and Clouds, are included in this consideration of the artist’s goals, methods, and achievements.
Art of the Gift: Recent Acquisitions
July 25-December 13, 2015
Interviews Louise Allison Cort, curator for ceramics; Debra Diamond, curator of South and Southeast Asian art; Massumeh Farhad, chief curator and curator of Islamic art; David Hogge, head of the Freer and Sackler Archives; Carol Huh, associate curator of contemporary Asian art; Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art; Ann Yonemura, senior associate curator of Japanese art
The beauty and diversity of Asian art are evident throughout the collections of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, which together form the national museums of Asian art. Each museum’s institutional identity builds upon the visionary collecting interests and gifts of its founder: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) and Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987). Since the opening of the Freer in 1923 and the Sackler in 1987, generous donations and funds designated for acquisitions have expanded the collections, which have achieved notable depth, breadth, and variety. Art of the Gift celebrates a selection of recent and promised gifts made to the museums’ collections and archives. Objects on view range from centuries-old Buddhist sculptures from Japan, Southeast Asia, and Tibet to lacquer ware, postcards, and contemporary photography from Iran. These works offer a view of the richness and diversity of Asia’s artistic and cultural heritage, while they also underscore the generosity of donors who wish to share their appreciation of Asian art with the public.
Perspectives: Lara Baladi 
August 29, 2015-June 5, 2016
Interviews Lara Baladi; Carol Huh, Perspectives curator and assistant curator of contemporary Asian art
Media tour Thursday, August 27, 2015
Egyptian-Lebanese artist Lara Baladi (born 1969) experiments with the photographic medium, investigating its history and its role in shaping perceptions of the Middle East-particularly Egypt, where she is based.
This installation centers on Oum el Dounia (The Mother of the World), a large-scale tapestry based on a photographic collage. Employing both archival material and Baladi’s own images, the work was transformed into a tapestry in 2007 through the use of a digital loom. Oum el Dounia reflects Baladi’s interest in the proliferation of images of Egypt, and in how technology and interactivity affect the creation, dissemination, and preservation of visual narratives.
Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa ScreensSeptember 12, 2015-January 3, 2016
Interview Ann Yonemura, senior associate curator of Japanese art
Complementing exhibitions of Rinpa art in the Freer and Sackler, this installation showcases remarkable works on folding screens. A magnificent image of maple leaves fills Ikeda Kōson’s six-panel screens, a major acquisition in its premiere showing at the Freer. Gold and silver illuminate Ogata Kōrin’s stately procession of cranes, as well as renowned works by other artists of the Rinpa lineage. Nature and poetry permeate these paintings, which range from spacious abstractions to pieces with a profusion of color and form.
Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre
Through January 2, 2017 #filthylucre
The Lost Symphony: Whistler and the Perfection of Art,
the second phase of Peacock Room REMIX, opens January 16, 2016
Interviews Lee Glazer, associate curator of American art; Julian Raby, director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries; Darren Waterston
Resources exhibition website; press release
Peacock Room REMIX centers on Filthy Lucre, an immersive interior by painter Darren Waterston. He reinterprets James McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room as a resplendent ruin, an aesthetic space that is literally overburdened by its own excesses-of materials, history, and creativity. Like Filthy Lucre and the original Peacock Room, this exhibition invites viewers to consider the complex relationships among art, money, and the passage of time.
The Lost Symphony: Whistler and the Perfection of Art
January 16-May 30, 2016
Three Girls would have been a seminal work in the stylistic development of American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)–if he had completed it. He intended to hang the large painting opposite his Princess from the Land of Porcelain in the dining room of his patron Frederick Leyland, but after they quarreled over the cost of the Peacock Room, Whistler destroyed the work. As part of Peacock Room REMIX, this exhibition reconstructs how Whistler’s unrealized quest for “the perfection of art” intersected with less-rarified concerns about patronage, payment, and professional reputation.
LAST CHANCE
Seasonal Landscapes in Japanese Screens
Through September 6
Interviews Ann Yonemura, senior associate curator of Japanese art
Cherry trees bloom in this selection of folding screen paintings from the Freer Gallery. These landscapes from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries combine ink painting techniques assimilated from China with the vibrant color and gold of traditional Japanese painting in a new style and grand scale, which was favored for residential and reception rooms.
Abbas Kiarostami: Five Dedicated to Ozu
Through September 13
Interviews Carol Huh, assistant curator of contemporary Asian art; Tom Vick, curator of film
From July to September 2015, the Freer|Sackler presents Contemporary Iran through Film, a series of programs highlighting prominent figures in contemporary Iranian art. Presented as a single-screen projection, Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003, 74 minutes) by celebrated director Abbas Kiarostami pays tribute to Yasujirō Ozu, the renowned Japanese filmmaker whose work has deeply influenced Kiarostami’s films. Through a characteristic attention to the power of simple mise-en-scène and sound, the inherent drama and subtle humor of nature unfurl before the viewer in five long shots taken near the sea.
Fine Impressions: Whistler, Freer, and Venice
Through November 1
Interviews Lee Glazer, associate curator of American art
Resources exhibition website; press release
In 1887, museum founder Charles Lang Freer purchased the entire Second Venice Set, twenty-six atmospheric etchings by James McNeill Whistler. This precipitous act marked the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership. The mutually beneficial relationship between collector and artist eventually led to the founding of the Freer Gallery, today the world’s largest and finest repository of Whistler’s works.
The Second Venice Set is well known within Whistler’s oeuvre. It has most frequently been exhibited to highlight changes in Whistler’s style and to underscore the popularity of Venice as a tourist destination and artistic subject. Fine Impressions, however, tells the story from Freer’s perspective: how his acquisition of the Second Venice Set came to shape his legacy as a connoisseur and collector.
Palmyra
Through December 2015
Interviews Massumeh Farhad, chief curator and curator of Islamic art
Resources exhibition website; press release
An exquisitely sculpted bust of a woman from ancient Palmyra in Syria has returned to view for the first time since 2006. Named “Haliphat,” the limestone funerary relief depicts an elegant, bejeweled figure that combines both Roman and Eastern characteristics. A 3-D scan of Haliphat will be released for viewing and download at a later date as part of the Smithsonian X 3D Collection. Accompanying the bust is a video screen that shows Félix Bonfils’ evocative 1860s photographs of Palmyra, as well as images from the influential book Robert Wood’s The Ruins of Palmyra, completed in 1753.
Arts of the Islamic World
Through December 20
Interviews Massumeh Farhad, chief curator and curator of Islamic art
The arts of the Islamic world flourished in a vast geographic area extending from Morocco and Spain to the islands of Southeast Asia. Although distinct in their cultural, artistic, ethnic, and linguistic identities, the people of this region have shared one predominant faith, Islam.
The works on view represent the three principal media for artistic expression in the Islamic world: architecture (both religious and secular), the arts of the book (calligraphy, illustration, illumination, and bookbinding), and the arts of the object (ceramics, metalwork, glass, woodwork, textiles, and ivory). The works date from the ninth to the seventeenth century. On view are brass bowls and candlesticks, folios from the Koran, earthenware and ceramics, and paintings representing the traditions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and other parts of North Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan.
Freer Gallery of Art
January 4, 2016-Summer 2017
Interviews Massumeh Farhad, chief curator and curator of Islamic art; Julian Raby, the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art
Resources renovation website; press release
In January 2016, the Freer Gallery will embark on a major revitalization of its 92-year-old building, reopening summer 2017 with a slate of refreshed gallery spaces. During this time, exhibitions and events will continue at the Sackler Gallery, throughout the Washington area, and online. All exhibitions in the Freer Gallery of Art will close on January 4, 2016.
Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes
Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas
Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art
Interviews Louise Allison Cort, curator for ceramics; Ann Yonemura, senior associate curator of Japanese art
Resources exhibition website
The modern term Rinpa (Rimpa) describes a remarkable group of Japanese artists who created striking images for paintings, ceramics, textiles, and lacquerware. The term itself is based on the art name of Ogata Korin (1658-1716). Rinpa artists do not belong to a continuous lineage of master and disciple. Instead, their works are linked by common features such as strong compositions, vibrant fields of color, and thin, pooled ink rooted in the work of the seventeenth-century Kyoto painter Tawaraya Sotatsu (on view in the Sackler beginning October 2015). The Rinpa style both resonates with tradition and continues to renew Japanese art and design today.
This exhibition features paintings, ceramics, woodblock-printed books, and lacquers by Korin, his brother Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), and later artists inspired by the brilliant simplicity of Rinpa design. It is complemented by a gallery of tea ceramics influenced by Hon’ami Koetsu, Sotatsu’s principal collaborator.
Chinese Ceramics: 13th-14th Century
Interviews Louise Allison Cort, curator for ceramics; Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art
Ceramic production during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) reflects the strength of the international market demand for Chinese wares. Notably, celadon-glazed vessels from Longquan competed with porcelain objects from Jingdezhen, painted with innovative decoration in cobalt pigment. A selection of Chinese ceramics from the Freer collection shows highlights of Yuan ceramic styles.
Cranes and Clouds: The Korean Art of Ceramic Inlay
Interviews Louise Allison Cort, curator for ceramics
The Freer’s Korean gallery embodies the evolution of the distinctive Korean ceramic decoration known as sanggam. Originally, sanggam involved inlaying white and black pigments into stamped or carved motifs to create images of cranes, clouds, ducks, lotuses, and willows that appear to float within a limpid green glaze. This technique appeared in Korea by the mid-twelfth century; it would adorn tableware and ritual vessels used by the court and nobility for two centuries. Once porcelain replaced celadon as the elite ceramic, however, the appearance of inlaid decoration changed radically. White pigment, applied in dense patterns to cover everyday bowls and dishes, approximated the snowy appearance of porcelain.
Enigma: The Art of Bada Shanren (1626-1705) 
Interviews Stephen Allee, associate curator of Chinese painting and calligraphy
Resources exhibition website; press release
Freer and Whistler: Points of Contact
Interviews Lee Glazer, associate curator of American art
Resources exhibition website
The juxtaposition of Asian and American art at the Freer Gallery is due largely to the influence of the expatriate American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), who played an important role in the aesthetic education of Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), the Detroit industrialist and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art.
A choice selection of the more than 1,300 paintings, prints, and drawings by Whistler is now on view in the gallery adjacent to the Peacock Room. The works exemplify both Freer’s philosophy of collecting and Whistler’s own self-conscious synthesis of Western and Asian artistic traditions.
The Nile and Ancient Egypt
Beautiful and majestic, the mighty Nile River inspired ancient Egyptian artists and craftsmen for more than four millennia. The Nile and Ancient Egypt presents exceptional artifacts in the collection of the Freer Gallery. Made of glass, wood, and stone, these objects illuminate the important role water animals played in ancient Egyptian religion and concepts of the afterlife. Other highlights include a masterfully rendered pharaonic head from the third millennium BCE and a selection of extraordinary glass decorated with wave patterns that recall the Nile. Together they evoke the power and enduring fascination of this waterway.
The Peacock Room Comes to America
Interviews Lee Glazer, associate curator of American art
Resources exhibition website; press release
Most visitors know the Peacock Room as it was designed by American artist James McNeill Whistler in 1876. For the first time, the room has been restored to its appearance in 1908, when museum founder Charles Lang Freer filled its shelves with ceramics he had collected throughout Asia. Instead of glossy blue-and-white Chinese porcelain, Freer preferred the complex surface texture and subtly toned glazes of the pots now on view.
Promise of Paradise: Early Chinese Buddhist Sculpture
Interviews Keith Wilson, curator of ancient Chinese art
Resources exhibition website; press release
The Freer’s impressive collection of stone and gilt bronze Buddhist sculptures highlights two flourishing ages, the sixth century and the High Tang (sixth to eighth century). The exhibition’s dramatic focus is the monumental Cosmological Buddha: a life-size stone sculpture covered in intricate representations of the realms of existence, ranging from hell to the abodes of the devas, or Buddhist gods.
Silk Road Luxuries from China
Interviews Keith Wilson, curator of ancient Chinese art; Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art
Resources exhibition website
For centuries a vast system of trading routes, now collectively known as the Silk Road, has crossed the Central Asian desert. These caravan trails facilitated the spread of Buddhism and provided a course for the exchange of luxury goods between merchants and traders in China and the West. The impact of foreign imports on the arts of China is particularly apparent in objects dating from the sixth through eighth century, when Chinese craftsmen explored new materials, techniques, forms, and decorative patterns and began to use silver and gold for tableware and other functional objects. This exhibition features exceptional examples of this phenomenon.
