Wednesday 10 November – Friday 29 July 2011
The Japanese Collections at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Opportunities and Challenges
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
In August 2003, Joe Earle took up his position as the first Chair of the Department of Art of Asia, Oceania and Africa at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A leading authority on Japanese art, Joe focussed his lecture on the challenges and opportunities presented by the MFA’s renowned Japanese collection.
About the contributors
Joe Earle
Joe Earle graduated from Oxford University in Chinese Language and Literature in 1974. He joined the Far Eastern Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, specialising in Japanese art and design. In 1983, he was appointed Keeper of the Department, the youngest person ever to hold such a post in a UK national museum, and led the project to establish the Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art. In 1987, he became Head of Public Affairs and overhauled the V&A’s marketing strategy. After leaving the V&A in 1990, he worked as a consultant to the Japan Festival 1991 and its flagship exhibition ‘Visions of Japan’. He organised more than a dozen exhibitions of British, French and Japanese art in the United States, Italy, the UK and Japan, as well as writing numerous catalogues for major dealers, auctioneers, private collectors and museums. His connection with the Museum of Fine Arts began as curator of ‘Netsuke: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Miniature Sculpture’ (2001-02) and he has since prepared a computer inventory of the museum’s extensive collection of Japanese metalwork.
Professor Craig Clunas
Professor Craig Clunas (chair) is the Percival David Professor of Chinese and East Asian Art, SOAS, University of London. He specialises in Chinese art and material culture from the Ming dynasty onwards, and theory and methodology in art history. He was formerly Senior Research Fellow in Chinese Studies at the V&A Research Department (1993-4) and Professor of History of Art at the University of Sussex (1997-2003). He has been awarded, amongst others, the RC Hills Gold Medal of the Oriental Ceramic Society for Outstanding Contribution to the Study of Oriental Art (1999). He was elected Fellow of the British Academy this year. His recent publications include Elegant Debt: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming 1470-1559 (London, 1997).