Cats, Ballet and Hokusai: VBMA’s November
Long before Hello Kitty became the queen of Japanese pop culture, cats were already making themselves at home in Japanese art, bringing good fortune and hinting at a hidden world of magic.
That’s where November begins at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, and it builds from there to a ballet retrospective, the opening of the 45th International Lecture Series, and a blockbuster of Japanese printmaking on loan from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
On Nov. 7 at 1 p.m., Rhiannon Paget, curator of Asian art at the Ringling and author of Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art, explains why Japan’s devotion to cats runs far deeper than cat cafés and cat islands, and how centuries of woodblock prints reveal it. Tickets are $12 for members and $15 for nonmembers, with admission included. More information here.
On Nov. 14, Second Saturday throws the doors open with free admission all day and family art studios from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Later that day, Ballet Vero Beach performs A Retrospective, a look back at more than a decade of dances inspired by the museum's exhibitions, at noon and 3 p.m. ($30 for members, $36 for nonmembers). On Nov. 18 at noon, docents lead Light Entanglement, a gallery talk that's free for members and $12 for everyone else.
Then comes the main event. On Nov. 21, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print arrives from the MFA Boston, pairing Hokusai and Hiroshige, the two great masters of Japan's "Floating World," with Kawase Hasui, a leader of the 20th-century shin hanga (new prints) movement who was later named a Living National Treasure. It runs through Feb. 7.
On Nov. 30 at 4:30 p.m., the International Lecture Series opens with Tokyo scholar Noriko Murai, who traces water and seascapes from Hokusai to Monet to Winslow Homer. Single seats are $130 in the Great Hall or $90 to stream/simulcast for members, and $160 or $110 respectively for nonmembers.
Jill Nathanson's abstract paintings and Museum in the Garden, a first look at the new campus, are on view all month.
For more information, visit vbmuseum.org
