Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints

The National Gallery will present key examples of Teraoka’s ukiyo-e style works alongside traditional ukiyo-e prints, delving into their visual, strategic and thematic connections.

From the early 1970s Japanese-American artist Masami Teraoka adopted the traditional visual vocabulary of 17th–19th century Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints to comment on the world around him. These included reflections on contemporary themes such as globalisation, collisions between Asian and western cultures, and the AIDS crisis. Inspired notably by kabuki theatre prints and the ukiyo-e genres of bijin-ga (beautiful women), yurei-zu (ghosts, demons and supernatural beings), and shunga (erotic prints), Teraoka created dramatic compositions rich in symbolism.

This exhibition will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the National Gallery’s seminal exhibition Don’t leave me this way: Art in the age of AIDS, in which Teraoka featured and includes ephemera relating to the exhibition and associated activists’ works. The occasion will also be marked through the display of Teraoka's major folding screen AIDS series/Makiki Heights disaster 1988, which was recently acquired and has never been presented in Australia.