The Morse Historic Design Lecture | Japan, the West, and the Emergence of Japonism in Design WAITLIST ONLY

• Design & Architecture
• History

Celebrating the exhibition Passion for the Exotic: Japonism, this lecture examines the historical context of the Japanese influence on European and American design at the turn of the twentieth century, highlighting important museum exhibitions, dealers and collectors of Japanese works that exposed Eastern art and design to Western eyes. In 1853, American Commodore Matthew C. Perry forced Japan’s ruling body, the Tokugawa shogunate, to open Japan to trade relations with the West after nearly 250 years of isolation. A period of rapid change followed and, as the country modernized, old Samurai families and temples were forced to sell their treasures to survive, resulting in lacquers, inr ô, fans, textiles, bronzes, and ceramics arriving in Western countries.