Hand-drawn manga pages go on display in Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Art of Manga’

Pages drawn by hand for One Piece, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Bleach now hang in a Brooklyn gallery. The Brooklyn Museum opened “Art of Manga” on Oct. 3 at 200 Eastern Parkway.

The show makes the case that Japanese comics belong in the fine art conversation. Long before these characters reached anime, movies and merchandise, each one was drawn in ink on a sheet of paper. The museum builds the exhibition around those first pages.

Manga artists in the Brooklyn Museum exhibition

The 10 artists in the show were chosen by its curator, Nicole Rousmaniere, whose field is the history of Japanese art. Together they trace how manga has changed over the decades. Two are foundational figures who worked in the 1960s and 1970s. The other eight are contemporary creators whose work runs from the 1980s to the present.

Rousmaniere puts weight on meeting the drawings face to face. In front of an actual page, a visitor can follow the quality of each line and see what the artist meant to do. That close look can change the way a viewer reads visual storytelling.

An exhibition for manga fans and newcomers

The galleries have to serve two very different crowds: devoted fans who know the material in depth and visitors who may not know what manga is. Rousmaniere likens the layout to a dance between those groups. The show leans toward neither. It centers on how the artists build their pages and tell their stories, so both audiences can come away appreciating the form.

“Art of Manga” is on view at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.