Kimonos at The Met

I got a chance to go over to The Met last week before the kimono exhibit closed. 

 

I am glad that I did.  It was quite extraordinary.

Typically, the Japanese kimonos on display at The Met are heavily embroidered. 

As someone whose artwork is focused on embroidery, I visit them often for inspiration. 

Most designs focus on nature - flowers and animals. 

This one features swirls of water because it was a fireman’s outfit!  Very cool.

The characters on this piece are the words from a famous poem.

The exhibit also included more modern pieces where the design is imprinted in the material rather than embroidered on top of it.  Nature was still big. 

But some of the pieces were more abstract.

 So many ideas.  So little time.

Here’s a link to the “China Through the Looking Glass” from 2015…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2015/05/china-through-looking-glass.html

 

Enjoy!

PJ

 

© 2023 PJ Lehrer