The School of Art in the Fulbright College Arts and Sciences welcomes visiting scholar Sarah E. Thompson as a guest lecturer coinciding with the closing of 'Staying Afloat in a Floating World' exhibition, a collaboative presentation with University of Arkansas Museum, the School of Art art history program and Fine Arts Center Gallery.

Thompson will present 'Rival Artists of 19th Century Japan: Kuniyoshi versus Kunisada,' in a virtual lecture at 5:30 tonight, Thursday, Feb. 25.

The rival artists Thompson will discuss are two of the most popular designers of figure prints in the 19th-century Japan. They were the rival Utagawa school masters, Kunisada and Kuniyoshi. 

Kunisada was the popular favorite during his lifetime. He was famous for the realism of his portraits of Kabuki actors, the sensuality of his beautiful women and the luxurious settings he imagined for historical scenes, 

Kuniyoshi is loved by connoisseurs and collectors today for his dynamic action scenes of warriors and monsters, foreshadowing present-day manga and anime. His comic prints and, even a few especially daring works, included forbidden political satire in disguise.

Thompson's lecture connects to the current exhibition, Staying Afloat in a Floating World, at the Fine Arts Center Gallery, closing tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 26.

"Sarah Thompson brings a wealth of experience and visual knowledge from her invaluable work on the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' collection of over 50,000 Japanese prints, the largest collection outside of Japan," said Oh Mee Lee art history instructor. "We are pleased to welcome her and introduce her expertise to our students"

Staying Afloat in a Floating World features Japanese prints from the University of Arkansas Museum and brought together by Oh Mee Lee, Laurel Lamb curator of education and engagement of the U of A Museum, and Maryam Amirvaghefi, assistant director of the Fine Arts Center Gallery.

"This has been an exciting collaborative opportunity," said Lamb. "We were thrilled to share these vibrant prints for display, but also for in-depth study. It's experiences like these that provide new perspective and bring the Museum's collections to life." 

The exhibition is a 'teaching exhibition.' Each of the 18 students from a cross-listed art history and Asian studies course has selected one of the Japanese prints to analyze and research this semester. Later in the semester their research will include explorations into woodblock printing technique, Kabuki theatre and contemporary cultures.

Staying Afloat in a Floating World explores ideas of resilience and uncertainty embedded in the materials and images of "floating." 

The ukiyo-e, literally "pictures of the floating world," from 19th-century Edo Japan, display the ephemerality of urban life in both subject matter and format, while the glass fishing floats, made of recycled sake bottles, point toward a livelihood dependent on buoyant markers at sea. Both of these livelihoods relied on staying afloat. 

Audiences can still experience Staying Afloat in a Floating World:

• Thursday, Feb. 25, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Friday, Feb. 26, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Join the virtual lecture tonight, Feb. 25, by Sarah E. Thompson at http://ow.ly/ra9c50DIEbN