Japanese Prints from the Collection of Bruce Goff

When he was just 14, he made a drawing entitled “A Japanese Residence” (1918), and several early watercolors from the 1920s depict Asian scenes. Goff deeply engaged with Japanese art and culture throughout his life, collecting prints alongside his patron Joe Price, and finally visiting the country in 1969.

Many of the prints in his collection date to the 1930s and 40s and feature the nostalgic and seasonal landscapes created by artists of the Shin-hanga movement. These works are characterized by a careful attention to light and weather effects and a painterly realism not present in earlier Japanese prints. Artists Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) and Yoshida Hiroshi (1867–1950) were the main proponents of this style and incredibly prolific. Hasui created over 600 print designs in his lifetime, and because Goff was interested in “making a collection of the work of Hasui,” he collected about 400 individual designs by the artist.

In addition to displaying prints in his home, Goff showed them as inspiration to students at the University of Oklahoma when he led the architecture school there. Goff’s interest in and knowledge of Japanese art and culture can be seen in two of his most celebrated built projects: Shin’enKan (1956–76), Etsuko and Joe Price’s home in Bartlesville, Oklahoma where they displayed their renowned collection of Japanese paintings and the Pavilion for Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1978-1988).

This exhibition brings together 35 of the more than 800 Japanese prints that were given to the museum from Goff’s estate in 1990. Illuminating one of Goff’s many influences and inspirations, it complements the retrospective Bruce Goff: Material Worlds, on view in the Art Institute’s Regenstein Hall, December 20, 2025–March 29, 2026.

Japanese Prints from the Collection of Bruce Goff is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Arts of Asia.

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