Japanese art from Larry Ellison
Oracle CEO lends superb collection to Asian Art Museum
There may be art lovers who don’t want to hear any more about Larry Ellison, the Oracle CEO whose Oracle Team USA is the defender of the America’s Cup. Let the catamaran race begin on San Francisco Bay, but spare them the commotion and promotion as they head resolutely for the Asian Art Museum.
“In the Moment: Japanese Art from the Larry Ellison Collection,” however, has everything to do with its namesake — his favorite painted screens and scrolls and artists, the way he would display them at home, his favorite subjects, especially animals, from dragons and tigers to roosters and chicks.
Some 60 items from his collection of about 500 works went on display last week at the museum, an exhibit that feels spacious and airy under the direction of curator Laura Allen. She and the staff worked with Emily Sano, Ellison’s art consultant, who is a past director of the museum.
A stunning collection
If the works on exhibit, especially the Japanese folding screens, are an indication of the breadth of Ellison’s holdings, he has taste as well as money. This is not a billionaire’s pretentious display of the art he’s purchased. It’s a superb introduction to Japanese art spanning 1,000 years, drawn from a collection that Allen calls “one of the fi nest in the United States.”
It’s a fact of life that well- heeled collectors make museums possible, from the Rockefellers to a WalMart heiress. Among the welcome exhibits in San Francisco recently have been William Paley’s vast collection of paintings at the de Young Museum and a sampling of Jerry Yang’s Chinese calligraphy at the Asian Art Museum.
The Asian Art Museum’s director, Jay Xu, opened the exhibit preview by thanking Ellison for sharing his collection. Art fans who see the show will thank him, too. It’s the best way to view this superb array of Japanese art short of an invitation to Ellison’s home in Woodside.
The showpiece of the exhibit could very well be the first display — a pair of folding screens from the 17th century, each nearly 6 feet high and 12 1 ⁄ feet wide. 2 Attributed to Hasegawa Togaku, they make up a dynamic panorama of crashing waves and jagged rocks, and seating in front of the screens puts viewers right at their level.
But there’s more. Changing light levels in the gallery suggests the passage of time from dawn to dusk to darkness, with the “sun” moving from east to west. All this in a three- minute period, as the screens’ reflective gold- leaf surface modulates, sometimes brighter, sometimes muted. Plus, there are faint sounds of rain falling and birds chirping. It’s hypnotic, and the curator said extended viewing brings a sense of floating above the water.
Frolicking pups
The first gallery also contains what Sano described as “some of his favorite objects.” Among them, a charming wood sculpture from the 1200s of two puppies at play and a pair of screens, one depicting a rooster and chicks, the other a quintet of puppies gathered underneath a banana plant. “Mr. Ellison fell in love with this pair,” Sano said, “particularly the puppies.”
To balance things out, there’s also an ink painting of a cat, probably made by a Buddhist monk in the 1400s of a pet that lived in his temple.
Ellison’s collection is nothing if it’s not accessible. On screens and scrolls, in bronze castings and wood carvings there’s a menagerie that may give this exhibit unusual family appeal. There are deer, an elephant, cranes, turtles, an egret, and a crow scowling at a flamboyant peacock.
A pair of tigers painted on hanging scrolls by Maruyama Okyo in 1779 shows depth and naturalism new at the time in Japanese art. One also looks very hungry as it stares at the viewer. Even more spectacular on a pair of screens are an almost photographic tiger and a fierce, more stylized dragon facing off. They’re another work by Okyo from the 1700s.
The exhibit’s third, concluding gallery compares three schools of Japanese paintings: Kano painters, who worked for military rulers and favored battle scenes; Rinpa painters, who worked for the court and emphasized seasonal plants; and Kyoto- based artists, who favored birds and animals.
Among the standouts are a screen depicting maize and cockscomb blowing realistically in the wind and an intricately detailed panorama of Tartars hunting and playing polo. There are also battle scenes, plus a full- size set of Samurai body armor and astonishing iron helmets, one of them looking like an extended, pointed swallowtail.
Added insight
As usual, the Asian Art Museum staff adds contemporary paths into these historic exhibits. Video projections show how Japanese art is displayed temporarily “in the moment,” as the show’s title suggests, then packed away.
One pair of screens shows a vast, detailed image titled “Twenty- Four Paragons of Filial Piety.” The images are from the 16th century; an iPad in front of the display allows modern- day viewers to search among those 24 paragons.