Dr. Frank Feltens, The Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art, Freer Gallery of Art
Frank Feltens joined the Freer|Sackler as an Anne van Biema fellow in Japanese art, and he became the Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art in 2017. He holds a PhD in Japanese art history from Columbia University (2016). Feltens is a specialist in Japanese painting with a particular focus on the late medieval and early modern periods. Additional interests include Japanese photography and the intersections between paintings and ceramics.
Feltens has published and lectured on a range of topics related to Japanese art. Recent work includes articles on the painters Ogata Kōrin and Sakai Hōitsu, and the photographer Domon Ken. Prior to coming to the Freer|Sackler, he worked at MoMA, the National Museum of Asian Art in Berlin and, in Tokyo, the Nezu Museum and the temple Sensōji. Feltens is a longtime practitioner of the Japanese tea ceremony in the Urasenke tradition and received the honorary pseudonym Sōchoku in 2017.
