Unfolding Beauty

Book excerpt: From its earliest days the Cleveland Museum of Art has demonstrated an active interest in Asian art. An important aspect of this initiative is the interest in the indigenous art of Japan evident in the museum's collection of screens, in which narrative subjects receive emphasis equal to those of the earlier Chinese-dominated tradition. Forty-four Japanese screens (many of them pairs), from the late 15th to the early 19th centuries, represent one of the largest and best collections in the West. This exhibition catalogue illustrates all these extraordinary objects together for the first time, in a generous format and the highest quality reproduction.