Masami Teraoka: A Conversation with the Artist

The “Paintings by Masami Teraoka” exhibition was on view at the Asian Art Museum from October 22, 1997 to January 25, 1998.

This exhibition featured thirty-three current paintings and four prints by Masami Teraoka (b. 1936), a Japanese-born painter of contemporary American pop art. The Asian Art Museum was pleased to present Paintings by Masami Teraoka as a partial response to the frequently asked question, “What happened in Japanese art after the middle of the nineteenth century?” This exhibition demonstrated that Japanese painting, like other endeavors such as architecture, garden design, ceramics, print making, and costume design, remains vital, and that the Japanese people’s traditional love of beautiful color and fluid lines, as found in ukiyo-e, can be fused with the progressive ideas and imagery of American pop art.

Paintings by Masami Teraoka was organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and made possible by a generous private contribution, with additional funding from the Smithsonian Institution Special Exhibitions Fund. Travel of the exhibition to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco was made possible by the Japan-United Sates Friendship Commission.