2023 Terra Lectures in American Art. "Made in Japan: American Identity and the Arts of the East"

Lectures to be delivered by Professor Christopher Reed, Terra Visiting Professor of American Art.

This first lecture in a series exploring the ways Japanese aesthetics have been used to construct various forms of American identity looks at collectors, connoisseurs, and curators in Boston at the turn of last century. The acquisition and display of Japanese art at Boston’s Museum of Fine Art reflected local anxieties over gender, ethnicity and class, provoking fantasies of affiliation with elite forms of Japanese masculinity. This local history has had global implications for perceptions of Japan and for conceptions of the role of museums in relation to civic identity.

Lectures open to all.  No booking required.  Please note that there will be a post-lecture drinks reception.