\'Painting the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Masterpieces From the Weston Collection\' Review: Seductive Surfaces\, Unsettling Subtext

‘Painting the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Masterpieces From the Weston Collection’ Review: Seductive Surfaces, Unsettling Subtext

To what extent do beauty, cultural exoticism, and historical forgiveness mitigate a #MeToo sensibility?

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Chicago

Question: What society came up with reading groups, composed of courtesans in a brothel, their customers, and various rich folk who happened by, that featured “amusing poetry” and “crazy writing”? If you answered 17th- to 19th-century Japan, in the “floating worlds” in the cities of Edo (Tokyo), Kyoto and Osaka, you are spot on. Should you learn about this while reading one of the wall labels in the exhibition “Painting the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Masterpieces From the Weston Collection,” at the Art Institute of...