Past Exhibitions
- Sesson: Iconoclastic Master
- July 7, 2015 - August 9, 2015
The painter Sesson Shūkei (born 1504) was a painter-priest who served under the Sadake clan, rulers of Hitachi province (present day Ibaraki prefecture) in eastern Japan. At a young age, he took the tonsure and became a Zen priest. Over his career, Sesson travelled extensively in eastern Japan, spending time in Aizu, Kamakura, Odawara, and other areas before finally retiring to Miharu in present day Fukushima prefecture.
While naming the Japanese painter Sesshū as his greatest artistic inspiration, Sesson was also a serious student of the Chinese paintings that were imported into Japan. He is known as the most individualistic of all the Muromachi painters. The works on view in this exhibition, with their deformed landscape elements and their distinctive spatial compositions, well represent the genius of this iconoclastic master.
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