Chicago Encounters Japan: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition

Wednesday, June 9 (SOLD OUT), 2021

This program is SOLD OUT. To inquire about purchasing a temporary link to the program recording, please contact info@driehausmuseum.org

This virtual program will be presented on Zoom. The program will be available to view until June 19.

Japan’s presence at the exposition of 1893 in Chicago was tactful, inspirational, and enduring. In particular, the Phoenix Hall (Hooden) situated on an island in Jackson Park showed visitors how one could live surrounded by Japanese art through its period rooms. Chicagoans such as Samuel Nickerson and Clarence Buckingham established collections of Japanese art in the wake of the fair that would decide the way Japanese art was presented to the public at Chicago’s museums. In this talk, Dr. Katz explains the many forms of Japanese art available at the fair, the early Japanese art collections formed and exhibited in Chicago, and the legacy of those collections today.

Janice Katz, Ph.D. is the Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been with the museum for over 18 years where she curates quarterly exhibitions of Japanese prints. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2004. Her research focuses on paintings from the Edo period (1615-1868) and the history of art collecting in Japan. Her publications include Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2003), and Beyond Golden Clouds: Japanese Screens from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Saint Louis Art Museum (2009), an exhibition which traveled from Chicago to St. Louis and San Francisco. Her most recent major exhibition at the Art Institute, Painting the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Masterpieces from the Weston Collection, and its accompanying catalogue, focused on ukiyo-e paintings of the 17th through 20th centuries.

Image: Phoenix Hall (Hooden) at the World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893.