Low-Tech Nature

teamLab: Continuity uses interactive digital technologies to surround you with dynamic landscapes of color, light, and sound. But did you know that centuries before the advent of the electronic age, artists in Japan were honing equally ingenious low-tech methods to deliver immersive experiences of nature? In the paintings on view in this rotation, visual cues that evoke movement and the passage of time — swaying branches, budding blooms, flitting insects, birds winging into the distance — bring the natural world to life. 

This presentation is organized around four themes used by painters across schools and styles: moving water, remote mountains, flowering trees, and bamboo. A particular highlight is Nachi Waterfall (approx. 1789–1801), by Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), which is exhibited here for the first time in almost a decade. Rosetsu emphasizes the fall’s vertiginous height by inviting us to crane our necks, just like the small traveler by a hut at the bottom of the painting. Instead of being animated by pixels, this view of Nachi Waterfall is animated by your own imagination. 

Included with general admission. Reserve your timed tickets today. 

Image: Water landscape (detail), six-panel folding screen (one of a pair), 1926–1957, by Okochi Yako (Japanese, 1926–1957). Ink and colors on paper. Asian Art Museum, Acquisition made possible by anonymous, in honor of Paul Berry, 2009.1.2. Photograph © Asian Art Museum.