INTRODUCTION – TAASA Review December 2020

Ann Stephen Japanese modernist and avant-garde art form a small but significant part of The University of Sydney art collection, largely shaped by the Dr M J Morrissey bequest established in 1984 in memory of Arthur Lindsay Sadler, Professor of what was then called Oriental Studies.

Morrissey had studied Japanese under Sadler in the 1930s and it inspired his work as a translator and his interest in ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

His bequest sought to create a collection of `Far Eastern (particularly Japanese) pictorial works of art’, initially focused on pre-WW II Japanese modernist prints and publications, guided by Professor John Clarke (Department of Art History and Film Studies) and Jackie Menzies (formerly Head Curator, Asian Art, AGNSW). For TAASA’s celebration in this issue of the TAASA Review of the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum we decided to shift attention to several late 20th century modernist works to showcase two significant Japanese artists in our collection...