On 12 September 2024, Dr Rhiannon Paget gave a talk on her latest book, Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art. The talk by Dr Paget was a rare treat for our students who gained invaluable insights about the unique place cats – perhaps unparalleled to any other animal – have in Japanese society and visual culture. Many in attendance were students in our Masters of Art Curating program and PhD program, and they were delighted to hear from Dr Paget how she has gone on to pursue a curating career in the United States after graduating from USYD in 2016. Currently the Curator of Asian art at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, Dr Paget is the author of numerous books, include Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World (2023) and Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening (2021). After the talk, the audience had the following questions for her:
Jennifer Yang: Having completed your doctorate in Sydney, were there areas of your earlier research which found traction, or that you felt 'lived on', in your work in the US?
Rhiannon Paget: Absolutely. I did an honours degree in experimental marine ecology at the University of Sydney before continuing with my art history studies. Whether you’re a curator, scientist, or art historian, a lot of your work is wondering “what is this thing,” “how does it work,” “how does it relate to its environment,” and “why is it like this.” As a marine ecology student, I learned about experimental scientific methods, where you start with observing the world around you, then devise a model that would explain these things, and then a hypothesis through which you can test your model. While I’m no longer tormenting innocent molluscs, I generally begin my projects by studying objects and their cultural or historical “habitat” up close through archival records.
Jennifer Yang: What led you to pursue a curatorial role in the US? How did your relocation to the US inflect upon, reshape, or broaden your research interests?
Rhiannon Paget: If you want to pursue curatorial work, you have to be willing to go where the opportunities are. There are certainly more job opportunities in the U.S., being a much larger country than Australia and having many museums with substantial collections of Asian art. After I finished my Masters, I spent a year at the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in California, which was essentially an intensive training camp for museum professionals. We did everything from curating and collection care to fundraising, marketing, and front-of-house duties.
When I was close to submitting my Ph.D. thesis, I started a postdoctoral fellowship at Saint Louis Art Museum. The main project was to assist the curator of Asian Art, Philip Hu, to research and curate an exhibition with a catalogue that drew from the Lowenhaupt collection, a significant gift of objects related to Japan’s modern wars. It was a good match for my research experience, and also showed me how works of so-called “fine art” can be exhibited alongside archival materials and objects made for daily use by ordinary people like textiles and board games, allowing us to tell a more nuanced and detailed story of how they experienced and responded to historical and cultural moments.
That prepared me well for some of the other private collections I work with today that are fascinating mixtures of works of art created for juried exhibitions and wealthy clients, as well as mass-produced objects and ephemera. And of course, many objects that are treasured today, like the woodblock prints of Utamaro and Hokusai, were created to be enjoyed for a time and then discarded.
Caption: Ōgaki Shōkun, 1865–1937. Serving Tray with Cat Sleeping on Lotus Sutra, ca. 1920s.
Ink, gold pigments, and color on hinoki wood. 11 x 11 x 11/8 in(28 x 28 x 3 cm). John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 2021, 2021.6.
Alessandra Ma: What challenges did you face when curating Japanese or Asian art for an American audience? Given some might not be familiar with the contexts that Asian art emerge from, how do you ensure that exhibitions are culturally inclusive?
Rhiannon Paget: The United States is a diverse country, and museum audiences reflect that. Sarasota, where I live and work, is a college town with a large seasonal population due to tourism and part-time residents. The one thing that two visitors in my galleries are most likely to have in common is that they are hot and tired (our museum and its grounds are extensive). So, I aim to keep my labels engaging and accessible.
Yvonne Low: We’ve talked about our shared love for cats. What gave you this idea – to write a book about cats in Japanese art now?
Rhiannon Paget: The idea for the book came out of my 2021 exhibition Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening. Saitō (1907–1997), an artist of woodblock prints, created a lot of images of cats. A colleague asked me to give a lecture on his cat prints, but I initially hesitated because I didn’t know if I could find enough to talk about for 40 minutes! The topic turned out to be infinitely richer than I expected, and rapidly snowballed into a larger project.
Coincidentally, 2024 has turned out to be a big year for both Japan and cats. Post-pandemic “revenge” travel and the weak yen has made Japan a top tourist destination, and while cats never go out of style, they have been thrust under the spotlight by unfortunate rhetoric from the Trump-Vance presidential campaign.
Caption: Onchi Kōshirō, 1891–1955. Image No. 7: Black Cat (b), 1952. Paperblock print, ink and color on paper. 18 x 143/16 in (45.5 x 36 cm). Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of James A. Michener, 1991, 21608.
Ruchia Ren: I am curious to find out how you approached the publishers too. And relatedly, how did you put together such a rich collection of prints on cats? How did you manage this database and classify the images?
Rhiannon Paget: At the recommendation of a colleague, the publisher, Tuttle, invited me to write a book on a different topic that I didn’t feel confident writing about, so I made a counterproposal for the cat book. They had me put together a very detailed plan for content, word count, images, and deadlines. I wish I could say I used a sophisticated organisation system, but it was really just folders and spreadsheets. Once I was sure I was going to use something, I started requesting high resolution images and copyright permissions.
Sarah Clayton: Were there particular challenges you faced in researching and writing the book vis à vis your curatorial role?
Rhiannon Paget: Not really. It’s customary for curators to write for a broad range of audiences and platforms, including museum members’ magazines, exhibition catalogues, as well as more academic, peer-reviewed journals. This was a private project, so I worked on it during the evenings and on weekends, but it was also an opportunity to publicise some of the feline-themed artworks at The Ringling and in local collections, so it supported the museum’s mission. I curated a small exhibition to coincide with its publication and our museum giftshop even hosted a book launch for it.
Nicholas Croggon: What opportunities has publishing Divine Felines opened up that your more conventional academic publishing hasn’t?
Rhiannon Paget: Ask me again in 5 years! For now, I’ve had some very nice speaking invitations from other museums.
Caption: Toyohara Kunichika, 1835–1900. The Scene at Okabe: Sawamura Tosshō II as Inabanosuke and the Cat Demon, 1860. Published by Daikokuya Kinzaburō. Woodblock print, ink and color on paper. Approx. 153/8 x 105/8 in (39 x 27 cm). Image courtesy of Egenolf Gallery.
Sarah Clayton: What did you find most rewarding - and challenging - about researching and writing for a popular audience?
Rhiannon Paget: With academic publishing, we are mostly writing for a very narrow circle of peers and their students, who might only read a couple of chapters or paragraphs that relate to their own research. Writing for a more general readership enables you to introduce your work to people who might never otherwise pick up a book about Japanese art, including family and friends. A few people have told me they read Divine Felines cover to cover! It may not redirect the course of Japanese art history, but it has the potential to inspire curiosity and appreciation in our world, which is essentially what being a curator is about.
Yvonne Low: Just one final question, what advice do you have to students aspiring to be Curators and Art Historians in the current climate where specialism is increasingly overlooked, and ‘generalists’ are vastly preferred by institutions?
Rhiannon Paget: Working as a curator is tremendously rewarding and an immense privilege. I am constantly learning new things and find it stimulating to have access to wonderful works of art and interact with brilliant and creative minds every day. That said, anyone thinking about a curatorial career should study the job market very carefully. Make a list of every curatorial job in your field in the countries you are prepared to live in. Look at the salaries and the costs of living in those locations. Look at the specializations, qualifications, accomplishments, professional and social networks, and likely retirement dates of the people who currently hold those jobs. Being realistic and flexible about one’s career goals is recommended.
Although I’m a specialist in 19th and 20th century Japanese art, I oversee the entire Asian collection and have curated plenty of exhibitions on topics that I knew nothing about to begin with — most recently, Chinese scholars’ rocks. But one of the best parts of being a curator is that you are constantly learning, having windows into worlds that you didn’t even know existed suddenly opened to you. Although you need to be prepared to guide your visitors to a basic level of understanding of the material in question, you are their fellow traveller, and don’t need to have all the answers. Working on something outside your area of specialisation is actually a great opportunity to invite a guest speaker or consultant.
Caption: Takahashi Hiroaki (Shōtei), 1871–1945. Nude Playing with Cat, ca. 1927–30. Published by Fusui Gabo. Woodblock print, ink and color on paper with embossing, 43.5 x 27.2 cm. Image courtesy of Scholten Japanese Art.
We wish to thank Dr Rhiannon Paget again for taking the time to share these thoughtful insights about her role and her research.
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This book event is organised by Dr Yvonne Low, with kind support from Nicholas Croggon (Power Institute) and Prof Mary Roberts (Art History).
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