Amassed by Motte Alston Read of Charleston and his sister Mary Read Hume Simms of New Orleans during the first two decades of the twentieth century— a period dubbed the “Golden Age” of Japanese print collecting in America—the collection is one of the earliest of its kind in the Southeast and offers the full range of popular print subjects created by master ukiyo-e artists of the Edo Period in Japan.
Programing for the exhibition includes a curator talk with Sara Arnold, The Gibbes Museum Director of Curatorial Affairs, on Sept 17th at 11am. This event is free and open to the public. As the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Gibbes Museum of Art, Ms. Arnold oversees special exhibitions and is responsible for the study, care, and interpretation of the museum’s permanent art collection. She has curated over thirty-five special exhibitions and served as a contributing author or editor to numerous exhibition catalogues including Lasting Impressions: Japanese Prints from the Read-Simms Collection (2021). This striking, fully illustrated catalogue, from the Gibbes Museum of Art, featuring entries by Japanese fine art specialist Sebastian Izzard and an in-depth essay on the collectors by Sara C. Arnold and Stephen G. Hoffius will be available in The Bascom shop for purchase.
The exhibition will be on display at The Bascom from September 10 – December 3. A public reception will be held on Thursday, September 15, from 5:00 – 6:30 pm.
Image Credit: KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760–1849) South Wind, Clear Dawn (Red Fuji) from the series Thirty-six Views of Fuji,ca. 1831–33. Color woodblock print, 10 ⅛ x 15 inches. Image courtesy of Gibbes Museum of Art
