Helen Frankenthaler, Woodcuts, and the Tale of Genji

Karen Kunc, artist/printmaker and emeritus Willa Cather Professor of art, and Ikuho Amano, associate professor of Japanese at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, give insight to Helen Frankenthaler’s “Tales of Genji I,” a thirty-four-color woodblock print inspired by the world’s first novel. The event is moderated by Melissa Yuen, associate curator of exhibitions at Sheldon Museum of Art. “The Tale of Genji,” written in the early years of the eleventh century by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting in Japan’s imperial court during the Heian period, follows the life of fictional Prince Genji, the disowned son of an ancient emperor. Frankenthaler’s “Tales of Genji I” was acquired by Sheldon Museum of Art in 2020. For more information visit sheldonartmuseum.org/exhibitions/tales-of-genji-i.