Natsu Oyobe (University of Michigan Museum of Art)

The James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Art is consisted of Chinese ceramics, bronze wares, Buddhist sculptures, and other East Asian art works donated by his family and friends in memory of the prominent U-M professor of East Asian art, James Marshall Plumer (1899 – 1960). The collection shows an incredible network of scholars, collectors, and artists Plumer developed between 1930 and 1960, through his research of Jian (Tenmoku) and Yue wares, experience as a “Monument Man” in the occupied Japan of the post-World War II, and teaching at U-M. In this talk, Dr. Oyobe will highlight the Chinese ceramics in the Plumer Collection, and illuminate his remarkable scholarship and humanism that connected the people of diverse backgrounds from China, Japan, and the US.