Russian And Japanese Graphic Artists' Exhibition Opens In Moscow

Classic poetry from "the Land of the Rising Sun" has united two well-known graphic artists Mai Miturich and Ryuzaki Morimoto. On Tuesday the State Museum of the Orient with the assistance of the Japanese Embassy in Russia opened a joint exhibition of the celebrated Moscow artist and no less celebrated calligrapher from Tokyo. The exhibition is called "Points of Contact." Landscapes, Japanese fairy-tale and poetry illustrations, haiku scrolls which bring together text and drawing, and pieces displaying classic Japanese calligraphy make up the total of 150 exhibits of varies styles. The idea of this unusual or even experimental exhibition emerged during the meeting of the two artists in Moscow in 2000. The artists used the same graphic sheets to create illustrations and captions for classic haiku verses by famous poets Matsuo Basho and Masaoka Shiki. According to experts, visual "text" conveys the spirit of the literary sources with such grace, depth, and relevance that the illustrations will become part and parcel of the collection of Japanese poetry illustrations created in both countries. In the process of co-creation, the artists showed rare understanding and remarkable ability to comprehend the spiritual specificity of the other country. Famous illustrator of books by Homer as well as children's books Mai Miturich has been to Japan many times. He has produced a series of graphic landscapes of Hokkaido and illustrated several collections of Japanese fairy-tales. His co-author Ryuzaki Morimoto's interest to Russian literature dates back a long time. He has created a calligraphic version of Tatyana's Letter to Onegin from the verse novel "Yevgeniy Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin.