Poetry of Nature

The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection by John T Carpenter and Midori Oka, 201 pages

In 2012 Estelle Bender and T Richard Fishbein contacted the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York about donating the extensive collection of Edo era Japanese paintings the couple had acquired over the previous three decades.  The consummation of that gift was the occasion for this 2017 exhibition, although sadly Fishbein had died in the interim.  

As the title suggests, Fishbein and Bender, who began their collection in search of decorations for their New York City apartment, favored nature painting, which has long been a popular genre for Japanese artists.  Natural subjects are also very accessible - appreciating the beauty of the crows on the cover, for example, does not require any knowledge of their significance in Japanese culture or the ways in which the artist both echoed and deviated from previous depictions.  Yet such understanding certainly deepens the appreciation, especially given the rich allusive tradition of Japanese painting and the inclusion of poetry on many of the pieces.  Indeed, the most fascinating theme of the catalogue is how the Three Perfections - painting, poetry, and calligraphy (themselves three-quarters of the Four Gentlemanly Accomplishments, with the addition of board gaming) - were integrated by the Edo era artists.