Art – NEWYORKNIPPON.COM

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

What does the sport of baseball mean to you? Visionary playwright/director Toshiki Okada (chelfitsch theater company) explores this iconic American symbol in his newest play God Bless Baseball. Incorporating Okada’s distinctive style of hyper-colloquial speech and exaggerated commonplace gestures, the play positions the U.S. as parent and Japan and Korea — where baseball is deeply rooted in popular culture – as brothers heavily influenced by the parents. Featuring a cast of Japanese and Korean actors, and a stage set by acclaimed visual artist Tadasu Takamine, this baseball culture triple-play is sure to be a home run. With English titles.

Thursday, January 14, 8 PM
Friday, January 15, 7:30 PM
Saturday, January 16, 7:30 PM
Sunday, January 17, 2:30 PM

Tickets: $35/$28 Japan Society members

The Thursday, January 14 performance is followed by a MetLife Meet-the-Artists Reception.

Part of The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival.

Partner organizations for the God Bless Baseball U.S. tour are: FringeArts, Philadelphia, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland and Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.

An exhibition of 150 important Japanese artworks is being held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

It includes a statue of the Buddhist deity known as Fudo Myoo by sculptor Kaikei, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The collection also includes a depiction of a plum tree by 18th century painter Ito Jakucho.

The works are some of the 300 or so items donated to the museum after the death of collector Mary Griggs Burke in 2012. The earliest is from the 10th century.

The exhibition was set to open Tuesday and run through next July 31.

Burke began collecting Japanese art in the 1960s, eventually acquiring about 1,000 items. It was described as the largest private collection of Japanese art outside of Japan.

Some of the pieces were exhibited in public in 1985, including at the Tokyo National Museum.

Part of the Burke collection was also donated to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Category: Art

Toshiki Okada: God Bless Baseball

New York’s Met showing 150 newly donated Japanese art treasures