SAN DIEGO MUSEUM of ART | Kimono as Art: The Landscapes of Itchiku Kubota

November 1, 2008–January 4, 2009

The San Diego Museum of Art, in a unique collaboration with the Timken Museum of Art, the Canton Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, Japan, is presenting a major exhibition of works by internationally recognized kimono artist Itchiku Kubota (1917–2003).

On view at both the San Diego Museum of Art and the Timken, Kimono as Art features 40 monumentally scaled kimono by Kubota that have seldom been seen outside of Japan. The exhibition includes a selection from his Mt. Fuji series, depicting Japan’s most famous mountain, and Symphony of Light, the centerpiece of his career.

Kubota used a variety of traditional techniques and personal innovations to create his masterpieces. Through a complex layering of dyes, inks, and embroidery, he produced shimmering, abstract landscapes on eight-foot-tall kimono. A single kimono could take up to one year to complete and was created for exhibition purposes rather than to be worn. Kubota was fascinated with the effects of light on color and often used nature as a subject in his works.

On view at the Timken are six works, including three kimono from Kubota’s Mt. Fuji series—a popular subject in the arts of Japan—depicting Japan’s famous mountain at three different times of day. On view at SDMA is part of Kubota’s magnum opus, Symphony of Light. This breathtaking, panoramic installation features 30 kimono placed side by side depicting the changing season of fall to winter.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a foreword by all three museum directors, over 150 color illustrations, and two scholarly essays, including one by the exhibition’s guest curator and Asian textile specialist, Dale Carolyn Gluckman.

Itchiku Kubota Biography

Kimono as Art: The Landscapes of Itchiku Kubota is made possible by the generosity of the Timken Foundation of Canton and is a collaboration between the Canton Museum of Art, the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art., and the Timken Museum of Art.

Local presentation of this exhibition is supported in part by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program.