February 28–May 7, 2012Ryerson and Burnham Libraries

http://www.artic.edu/aic/

This exhibition, catalog, and programming were made possible by the generous support of Ford

Conservation of the works in this exhibition was made possible through a grant from The United States-Japan Foundation.

The Floating

Museum HoursMonday–Wednesday,

10:30–5:00 Thursday,

10:30–8:00 Friday–Sunday,

10:30–5:00

AdmissionAdults: $18

Children, Students, and Seniors (65 and up): $12

Children under 14: FreeMembers: Free

Shadows, Dreams, & Substance

The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60603-6404

Worldof

Ukiyo-e

T his exhibition showcases the Museum’s spectacular holdings of Japanese prints, books, and

drawings from the 17th to the 19th centuries. These works are complemented by related works from the museum’s collections created by Japanese and Westerns artists into the 20th century.

The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance showcases the museum’s spectacular holdings of Japanese “Ukiyo-e” (translated as pictures of the floating, or sorrowful, world) and is the first public viewing of this important and previously unseen collection. Featured are selected Ukiyo-e prints, books, and drawings from the

seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and other related works from the Library’s

colllections created by Japanese and Western artists into the twentieth century.

T he museum owes its extensive holdings of Ukiyo-e prints and printed books to a host of different collectors, including Supreme

Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and President William Howard Taft. However, the most extensive collection of Ukiyo-e at the Library was assembled by Crosby Stuart Noyes (1825-1908), an owner and editor-in-chief of the

former Washington Evening Star. In

giving the collection to the Library in 1905, Mr.

Noyes expressed the hope that the collection would

be “an illustration of the extraordinary variety in Japanese

art and an instructive and timely insight into their history and culture.”

In presenting this exhibition, the offers its visitors The Art Institute of Chicago the opportunity to see the beauty and the meaning that motivated Crosby Stuart Noyes and others to collect these materials.