Visions of the Orient: Western Women Artists in Asia 1900-1940

Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum presents Visions of the Orient, an exhibition that explores the fascination of female western artists with Asian cultures between 1900 and 1940.

Visions of the Orient explores the fascination of female western artists with Asian cultures between 1900 and 1940. The exhibition will focus on the work of four artists: Helen Hyde (1868-1919), Bertha Lum (1869-1954), Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956), and Lilian Miller (1895-1942), all of whom trained initially as painters but, while living in Japan, designed woodblock prints. The exhibition will investigate the intersection of American art, the woodblock print movement, women, and East Asia and the various ways that "the orient" served as a liberating professional space for these artists and as a place of diverse creative inspiration. In addition, the exhibition will highlight the international collaboration between these artists and their Japanese teachers and collaborators in the production of woodblock prints. Along with woodblock prints and rare paintings and drawings by these artists, original woodblocks, proof prints, and tools will draw viewers more deeply into the lives and creative process of the artists. Guest curated by Ken Brown, the exhibition is scheduled for national tours to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. and Jordan Schnizter Museum of Art in Oregon in 2011 and 2012.

Visions of the Orient is supported by the IFPDA Foundation.