Japanese Cloisonné Enamels from the Stephen W. Fisher Collection

The Walters Art Museum www.thewalters.org is open Wednesday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Comprised largely of pieces created during Japan’s “golden age” of decorative art production, this exhibition features many intricately adorned cloisonné vases, boxes and trays worked in gold, silver and dazzling colored enamels. Reaching their artistic maturity in the 1870s and being aggressively produced through the first decades of the 20th century, cloisonné enamels played an important role in Japan’s assertion of its own modernity in the newly opened international markets. Masterworks of cloisonné were sent as showpieces to international expositions where they served both to meet European expectations of Asian exoticism and inspired the development of international modern decorative styles. Many of the distinctive styles that emerged during this period are represented by outstanding examples from Baltimore’s Stephen W. Fisher collection of Japanese cloisonné. The exhibition consists of over 130 objects chosen to illustrate the wide range of forms, styles and techniques that have come to define the high point in the production of this beautiful form of art.