The Discovery of Style in 16th-century Eastern Japan - Aaron Rio Lecture
This December 9, 2019, talk by Aaron Rio, Associate Curator of Japanese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, takes a recently rediscovered painting by the prolific but little known Japanese painter Keison as a starting point to examine the contours of ink painting in late-medieval eastern Japan. Active around the middle of the 16th century in the eastern Kantō region, Keison’s oeuvre reveals proficiency in a specific array of painting styles, some rooted in Kantō and others newly imported from Kyoto. Aaron explores each of these styles, their sources, and Keison’s handling of them through a close look at a selection of his extant works.