Drawing from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, along with gifts
Kivivirta, Finnish, born 1959, Spoon Tile, 2012, slip cast stoneware, Promised Gift
February 15, 2025 – August 17, 2025 | Robert and Marlyss White Gallery (Gallery 281) | Free Exhibition Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) taught children how to live in a dictatorship. His Fables depict a world of talking animals, but the lessons they teach are about power’s abuses and the skills needed to survive. From their first publication in 1668 during the absolutist reign of King Louis XIV, Fables captivated artists, who illustrated scenes from the tales on a variety of surfaces
Gift of Carolyn T. Groves, 2007.12.1.
May 12, 2015 – December 29, 2019 | G328 | Free Mia created the MacFarlane Memorial Room in the mid-1970s to display hand-painted Chinese export wallpapers, made in the late 1700s or early 1800s and given to the museum by Mabel MacFarlane in 1967. The room is usually furnished with Federal-style American furniture, given to the museum by the MacFarlane family, and represents a parlor in the home of a wealthy New England family. For this special installation focusing on the wallpaper, we have removed the furnishings and invite visitors to come inside, sit down, and let their eyes wander over the wallpaper’s many lively scenes of a Chinese New Year festival in a noble family’s garden. This project is part of Living Rooms, an initiative to present Mia’s historic interiors and decorative arts collections in new ways. Generous support for this project provided by the MacFarlane Memorial Room Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation. Generous support for Living Rooms provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and donors at the 2014 Mia Gala.
content Chinese, for export Wallpaper, late 1700s or early 1800s Pigments on paper Gift
November 26, 2016 – May 7, 2017 | The Winton Jones Print and Drawing Gallery – Gallery 344 | Free Exhibition Printmaker Félix Bracquemond (1833–1914) ruled the roost in mid-1800s France by reviving interest in etching, a technique made famous by Rembrandt. Bracquemond led the way with his printmaking excellence and innovation, attempting the century’s first color etching and adopting design ideas from Japanese woodcuts, which he is credited with discovering in a Paris shop
Ladd Collection, gift of Herschel V.
November 21, 2015 – April 2, 2017 | G326 and G327 | Free This installation situates one of the greatest authors of English literature, Jane Austen, in a unique period room setting. Taking up two of Mia’s well-loved English interiors—the Queen Anne room and the Georgian Drawing room—this display will discuss Austen’s habits as a reader and writer, recreate scenes from her novel Emma (celebrating its 200th birthday in 2015), and invite museum visitors to read works that Austen read, wrote, or inspired. This project is part of Living Rooms, an initiative to present Mia’s historic interiors and decorative arts collections in new ways. Generous support for this project provided by the MacFarlane Memorial Room Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation
content The Jane Austen Reading Room England, Queen Anne room, c. 1720–1730, Oak Gift
May 29, 2021 – May 29, 2022 | Gallery 226, 227, 237 | Free exhibition In 1964, a young David Hockney won First Prize at the International Exhibition of Drawings and Engravings in Lugano, Switzerland; at the same event, Amano Kazumi received an excellence award for prints of his abstract Moral series. Amano first studied under Munakata Shikō, Japan’s best-known contemporary print artist, who is famous for his roughly executed black-and-white designs
, Self-figure (Mirror), 1965, woodblock print; ink and color on embossed paper, Gift
September 26, 2015 – March 13, 2016 | U. S. Bank Gallery | Free Exhibition Seven Masters focuses on seven artists who played a significant role in the development of early 20th-century shin hanga, the new print, and are noteworthy representatives of this movement. Drawing from the collection of Ellen and Fred Wells at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, it features the spectacular beauty portraits of Hashiguchi Goyō (1880–1921), Itō Shinsui (1898–1972), Yamakawa Shūhō (1898–1944), and Torii Kotondo (1900–1976), the striking actors of Yamamura Toyonari/Kōka (1886–1942) and Natori Shunsen (1886–1960), as well as the evocative landscapes of Kawase Hasui (1883–1957)
Gift of Ellen and Fred Wells 2002.161.70 Seven Masters: 20th-Century Japanese Woodblock
December 18, 2021 – December 4, 2022 | Gallery 203 | Free Exhibition Western viewers are often curious about why Chinese artists write on their paintings and what the characters say. This exhibition answers such questions and explores the idea of integrating fine painting, poetry, and calligraphy, known as the “Three Perfections,” in a single artwork
(image), Ink on paper, Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton 95.54.2 The Three Perfections
April 22, 2023 – July 23, 2023 | Galleries 237, 238, 239, 251, 252, 253 | Free Exhibition Fukuda Kodōjin (1865–1944) was one of a handful of scholar-artists who continued the tradition of Japanese literati painting (nanga) after 1900. Kodōjin’s painting style is characterized by bizarrely shaped mountain forms rendered in vivid color or monochromatic ink that often include a solitary scholar enjoying the expansive beauty of nature
(detail), hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift
March 18, 2017 – March 18, 2018 | The Sit Gallery (G203) | Free Exhibition Buddhism has been a dominant religious and intellectual force in China since it arrived from India around 100 C.E. Both literati and professional artists created Chinese Buddhist paintings
(1644–1911) Two Versions of Bodhisattva Guanyin, c. 1750 Ink and colors on silk Gift
