Flower basket made out of smoked bamboo
Image Credit

BUSEKI Suishin 武関翠心, Flower Basket (hanakago 花籠), about 1920–40. Split smoked bamboo (susudake); 10⅞ × 18 × 17¾ in. Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.727. Photo © and courtesy of Kagedo Japanese Art.

Grass Scripts

Bamboo Art from the Abbey Collection
Now On View

BUSEKI Suishin 武関翠心, Flower Basket (hanakago 花籠), about 1920–40. Split smoked bamboo (susudake); 10⅞ × 18 × 17¾ in. Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.727. Photo © and courtesy of Kagedo Japanese Art.

Grass Scripts: Bamboo Art from the Abbey Collection delves into how pioneers of modern bamboo in early 1900s Japan sought recognition for their millennia-long tradition as art rather than as craft.

Through modern innovations of form and technique, lyrical titles, and signatures, these masters of bamboo brought their own hands—wrote their own selves—into the bamboo work of art. This exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous gift of bamboo art from Arthur and Diane Abbey.

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Martin Building, Level 5
Included in general admission
Basket made out of split and leached bamboo

IIZUKA Rōkansai 飯塚琅玕斎, Whirlpool (Uzukumaru うずくまる), about 1953–55. Split and leached bamboo; 8½ × 9⅜ × 9 in. Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.733. Photo © and courtesy of Kagedo Japanese Art.

Tall basket made out of bamboo

IIZUKA Hōsai II 二代 飯塚鳳斎, Octagonal Charcoal Flower Basket for the Artist’s Kanreki (60th Anniversary), 1931. Nemagaridake bamboo, hōbichiku bamboo, rattan, dust, and lacquer; 13½ × 16 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey - New York, NY, 2024.731A-B. Photo courtesy and © Erik Thomsen Gallery.

Round bamboo basket with an opening in the center

HATAKEYAMA Seidō 畠山青堂, Sunflower (Himawari 向日葵), 2003. Japanese timber bamboo (madake) and rattan; 7½ × 16¼ in. dia. Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.728. © Monica Freitas Photography.

Square-shaped basket made out of black bamboo

TANABE Yōta 田邊陽太, Layered Mochi (Kasanemochi 重ね餅), 1980. Black bamboo (kurochiku); 11¼ × 18¼ × 18¾ in. Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.746. © Monica Freitas Photography.

Bamboo basket resembling the shape of a jewel

MAEDA Chikubōsai, 初代前田竹房斎, 1872–1950, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Sacred Jewel (Magatama 勾玉), Autumn 1926. Bamboo rhizomes and rattan, 7 1/2 x 22 3/4 x 13 1/2 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.738. © Monica Freitas Photography

Grass Scripts: Bamboo Art from the Abbey Collection is organized by the Denver Art Museum. This exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous gift of art from Arthur and Diane Abbey, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).