FOLDING SCREENS FROM
THE 17TH TO 21ST CENTURIESPARAVENTIPARAVENTINICHOLAS CULLINAN

Either/or, neither/nor: painting or sculpture? Art or furniture?
Utilitarian or ornamental? Prop or performative device?
Decorative, functional, architectural or theatrical? The triptych
exhibition “Paraventi”—unfolding across three places at once:
Fondazione Prada in Milan, Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai, andPrada Aoyama Tokyo—examines the many questions andparadoxes surrounding the history of the paravents.
Intertwining several cultures, this exhibition traces
the origins of paravents in China in the late Chou dynasty,
where they began as objects of spiritual contemplation andinspiration; their migration to Japan, often placed at thethreshold of a home to ward off malign influences; the way they
were then imported to the West, in the process parsing the
evolving distinction between polyptychs and paravents; theirdeployment during the Baroque period as props in both theaterand opera; and finally and most fundamentally, their adoption
by an astonishing array of artists, architects, and designers
during the 19th and 20th centuries, and on to the present.
Indeed, the decisive rupture in this singular history came inthe late 19th century, when artists from Paul Cézanne to James
McNeill Whistler reclaimed—also in the West—the paraventfrom its essentially functional status as furniture, and instead
invested it with its still current hybrid role as something forartistic expression, an evolution which then grew exponentiallyduring the 20th century.
In this context, the exhibition project “Paraventi”
continues its journey up to the present with a series of works
expressly made by such artists as Tony Cokes, Cao Fei,
Wade Guyton, Anthea Hamilton, William Kentridge, Shuang
Li, Goshka Macuga, Kerry James Marshall, Chris Ofili, Laura
Owens, Betye Saar, Tiffany Sia, John Stezaker, Keiichi Tanaami,
Wu Tsang, Luc Tuymans, and Francesco Vezzoli. They all havecontributed to the thematic reading of history of paravents andreconsidered the folding screen in the context of contemporary
art and society. The resulting submissions cover a range ofreferences to the history of the paravent and to the spatialcomplexity, narrative value, political ambiguity and relationshipto the human body that distinguish this liminal object. The
artists’ thoughts and the dynamics of the production of these
21st-century screens demonstrate the potential and paradoxesof the folding screen—including those which mediate, andincreasingly shape and define, our digital experience and ourreality—from a variety of perspectives, artistic practices, andpersonal research, but also reveal the extent to which thisunique art form is still very much unfolding.
This history is thus characterized by cultural migrations,hybridizations, and collaborations and by what is concealed
and revealed, withheld and unfurled. It is, especially the way it
manifests in the present, one of liminal objects and of liminality
itself: of being between things, both literally and metaphorically,
and in the process collapsing the rigid distinctions andhierarchies between these different disciplines of art andarchitecture, decoration and design.
Excerpt from the essay by Nicholas Cullinan “The Fold,” in Paraventi.
Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries, exhibition catalogue (Milan:
Fondazione Prada, 2023), pp. 9 ff.

THE EXHIBITION
PODIUM, PODIUM +1

The exhibition project has been conceived in partnershipwith the architectural firm SANAA founded by Kazuyo
Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. The more than seventy
screens, dating from the 17th century to the present, arespread across the two floors of the Podium.
Traversing space and time, centuries and continents,
the works on the ground floor present seven themes
in a cluster of rooms that flow into one another without
hierarchy, fixed sequence or narrative. The exhibition’s
key themes are presented in a series of spaces formed bycurving, transparent Plexiglas walls and sinuous curtains.
The first section—“Readings, East and West”—focuseson how the decorations on the works can be read, whether
from the right or left, as landscape or cartography, emphasizing their transnational character and complex history of
migration and translation.
“Public/Private” explores the function of folding
screens to create spaces for purposes of intimacy, withparticular reference to their erotic nature and sexual connotation, from the domestic dimension to taboos.
“Split Screens” highlights how screens today reflect
our pervasive digital experience. Originally, a folding
screen was not a place of visibility, but an object offering
physical protection. This dialectic between revelation andconcealment survives today in the screens of our devices,which are both opaque and transparent, windows and flat
surfaces.
“Four Seasons: Space and Time, Figuration and
Abstraction” examines how screens’ physical structure
allows the narrative to unfold sequentially in space andtime, both in the traditional representation of the seasonsand through figuration and abstraction.
Screens have also always existed as means to demonstrate wealth and power and to persuade; in the series
of works with the theme “Propaganda,” artists reflect onscreens’ political and provocative potential.
Furniture and decoration are domains in which ‘high’art is separated from art considered less pure. The section“World of Interiors” addresses the potential subversivenessof queer aesthetics to redefine the semantic field of what is
considered decorative.
Lastly, in the “Parody/Paradox” section, we analyzetransparent screens, works whose structure contradicts
the screening function, with humorous or parodical effects.
In contrast with the synchronic approach of theworks on the ground floor, in Podium +1 the chronological organization of the section “Either/Or/Neither/Nor”
follows the flow of history, emphasizing the constancy of
screens’ liminal status amid the negations they embody: as
painting and sculpture, as art and furniture, as functionaland ornamental objects, from Asia to Europe, from their
origins to the present day. Here visitors follow a temporaland physical line, free to make their own associations andobservations.

D
C

E
B

G

A
F

H

PODIUM
A Readings, East and West
B Public/Private
C Split Screens
D Four Seasons: Space and Time,
Figuration and Abstraction

E Propaganda
F World of Interiors
G Parody/Paradox
PODIUM+1
H Either/Or/Neither/Nor

PODIUM
1

Shuang Li, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us,
2023
Screen: sculpture – steel, paint, PVC projection screen;bench: sculpture – stainless steel, acrylic paint
Courtesy Peres Projects, Milan
Inspired by the imagery and concept of shadow play, thisinstallation is, in the words of the artist, “A metaphor of
the relationship between screen and body, the work also
aims to probe into intimacy and the different possibilities
a digital screen can offer in contemporary life.”

2

Cao Fei, Screen Autobiography (Milan), 2023
Xiaomi MIX Fold 3, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, green screen
cloth, blue screen cloth, black metal tripods, white bases
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space and SprüthMagersCao Fei updates the language of the screens to include
the way in which they are altering our reality by having a
set of moving wallpaper play across a number of differentelectronic devices. As she explains, “The screen within
the screen is building our contemporary digital lives. It
is also diluting our experience of reality and stirring up
multiple relationships with the real. Electronics is anextension of human beings. On the one hand, it provides
digital access to human beings, on the other hand, it
keeps us deep in the realm of oblivion and multitude oftime and space.”
3A The Battles of Ichinotani and Yashima, Japan,
3B first half of the 17th century
Pair of folding screens, ink, mineral colors, and gold leaf
on seven layers of paper, damask silk border, frame on
lacquered wood frame of the period, with original bronze
studs
Turin, MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale
These nanban screens—always conceived in pairs—recount a popular subject: the final battle of the Genpei
War, a civil war between the rival samurai clans whichlasted between 1180 and 1185. When this pair of screens
were painted in the Edo period (1603–1868), Japan had
just emerged from another civil war, and harking backto an era of ancient battles and legendary warriors was
popular among samurai families to reaffirm their martial
credentials. The gold leaf would have made both asymbolic statement about the wealth and status of theperson or family who commissioned it, and also, morepractically, would have provided a way to reflect light toilluminate a dark interior.
4

Macao and Canton, China, 2nd half of the 18th century
Lacquered wood, polychromy, silver, gold, paper, brass
Lisbon, Fundação Oriente - Museu do Oriente
This paravent creates a tale of two cities and cultures:
lacquered in black and red, one side depicts the cityof Macao with many landmarks built under Portuguese
influence, while the other side features Canton in flatand embossed decoration in silver and gold with threebuildings identifiable—the Lui-rong pagoda, the minaretof the Mehammedan mosque, and the triumphal arch.
The paravent was likely commissioned to document thePortuguese influence, first established in 1557 in this region.

5

Kurofune, the ‘Black Ship,’ Japan, 18th century
Ink and color on paper, golden leaf
Estoril, Portugal, Private collection
This nanban folding screen depicts a Western vessel
traversing a sea, documenting how such artifacts were
imported to Europe from Japan from the 17th century
onwards. The ‘Black Ships’ was the name given to
European vessels painted black with pitch arriving in
Kyushu, Japan from 1543 onwards, when the Portuguese
first established a trading route with the West. A potent
hybrid of East and West was created, one fusing Japanesestyles and painting techniques with Western subjects.

6

Luc Tuymans, La corrispondenza, 2023
Digital print on synthetic silk and wooden frame
Courtesy Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp
The transparent paravent by Luc Tuymans is based on hispainting La Correspondance (1985), which also embodies
porosity between painting and film. As he comments, “I
stopped painting from 1981 to 1985 because it became
too suffocating and too existential. And somebody by
accident shoved a Super-8 camera in my hands and I
started to film. And then I came back. Making images isimportant in the sense that you need distance. This was
the first painting made after the film adventure. And it’s
one of my most conceptual works.”
7

John Stezaker, Screen-screen, 2023
Silkscreen on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
Screen-screen by John Stezaker evokes cinematic imagery
by introducing an idealized Hollywood domestic scene
within a real space that retains the elements of a private
home. In this new work, Stezaker moves between thetangible dimension of a screen and the imaginary spaceof a movie screen. In this way, the artist pursues a film-like
temporal unfolding within the structure of the screen thatdevelops in the paravent structure.

8

Wu Tsang, Rebellious Bird, 2023
Fabric and aluminum, video projection and soundCourtesy of the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
Wu Tsang continues her ongoing practice of working withcurtains as a performative boundary or passage between
reality and fiction, using the curtain as a sculptural surface
to ‘unfix’ the projected image. Inspired by her research
into the opera Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet, the video
depicts a performance by Tosh Basco, whose gestures
almost frame the space in the process.

9

Joan Jonas, Double Lunar Rabbits, 2010
Wooden and paper curved screens, videos; color, sound,4’, looped
Courtesy Joan Jonas and Amanda Wilkinson, London
The artist explores the theme of the rabbit on the Moon,a familiar Japanese story. The footage is projected onto
paper and wood screens inspired by traditional sho-ji(room dividers or screens), while the two curving screensmake the images recede from view as one walks past.
The story is derived from a fairytale about a rabbit who
sacrificed itself as food for others and was rewarded by
the gods for doing so by being saved and having its image
traced on the surface of the Moon.

10 Jim Dine, Landscape Screen (Sky, Sun, Grass, Snow,
Rainbow), 1969
Acrylic on canvas, wood panel screen print with handpainting
Collection of Nina Dine
The five panels are inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s screen,
Promenade, Frieze of Carriages, of 1897. Preoccupied
by printmaking at the time, Jim Dine emulated Bonnard’s
lithographic screen by producing a double-sided screen,where recto and verso mirror each other, but Dine’s
gestural brushstrokes in acrylic paint are allowed to
become unique and individual. The five sequential verticallandscapes, akin to film strips, conjure landscape as acinematic montage, ever in flux.

11 Chen Zhifo, Seasonal Flowers and Birds,
China, 1947
Ink and color on paper
Asia, Private collection
The delicate work by Chen Zhifo revives the traditional
gongbi painting technique of flowers and birds. In 1918 hebecame the first Chinese artist to travel to Japan to study
pattern design, and his works forged a unique marriage
between this and the meticulousness of Chinese gongbi
technique.
12 Carrie Mae Weems, in collaboration with The FabricWorkshop and Museum, Philadelphia, The Apple of Adam’sEye, 1993
Pigment and embroidery on sateen, Australian lacewood
frame
Philadelphia, Collection of The Fabric Workshop andMuseum, Bequest of Marion Boulton Stroud
Carrie Mae Weems recounts the biblical story of Adam andEve, gender roles and differences, and the unequal powerthat comes with them. Here a silkscreen image of what
appears to be a naked woman save from a shroud (and
don’t the shroud and the veil have something in common
with the screen?) is the central panel of the triptych. Thereis sexual tension in the simultaneous shielding andrevealing of the central figure, as Weems acknowledges:“There is great desire, seduction, sexual charge,” and “Bothmen and women are accomplices in their own downfall, in
their own oppression, in their own victimization.”
13 Lisa Brice, Untitled, 2022
Ink, flashe (synthetic tempera), distemper, pigment,
neopastel, and conte on linen, mounted on wooden panelswith wooden frames and hinges
Vancouver, Rennie Collection
This work takes an all-female realm to the level of an artists’colony of Amazonians, refusing the common patriarchal
perspective. Nude women artists are busy in a dark andclaustrophobic interior, painting, drinking, and relaxing
amidst references to male painters of the European
tradition. These include Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of
the World of 1866, of which one of the women is painting a
new version while standing at an easel and looking down
at a mirror on the floor between her legs in order to painther own vulva, thus reclaiming the male gaze through theact of repainting. In case this message was not clear, afemale figure behind is contorting herself in the sameelaborate pose, arching her back over a chair, in a direct
quotation from Balthus.
14 William Morris (designer), Jane Morris, and Elizabeth
Burden (manufacturer), Screen with Embroidered Panels
Depicting Lucretia, Hippolyte, and Helen, 1860–61(embroidered panels), 1889 (screen)
Wood frame; linen, wool with wool and silk threads
Yorkshire, Castle Howard Collection
This folding screen depicting the three heroines Lucretia,
Hippolyte, and Helen, recalls the original functions of theparavent to give intimacy in the domestic realm. Designed
by William Morris circa 1860, it was worked by theembroiderer Elizabeth Burden, a member of the Arts andCrafts Movement and the sister of Jane Morris and sisterin-law of William Morris, the textile designer, poet, artist,and socialist activist, who was hugely influential in the‘medieval revival’ in 19th-century Britain. The screen was
inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century poem in theform of a dream vision, The Legend of the Good Women.
15 Anthea Hamilton, Shame Paravent, 2023
Oak, oak burr, hand cane rattan, goat yarn, webbing,fixings
Courtesy of the artist
Shame Paravent puts the concept of shame itself on
display, using materials such as horsehair that are
traditionally associated with abnegation and selfpunishment. As she says: “For me there is an implicitnessof shame when thinking of the paravent, it is always—inscale and use—in relation to the body. Shame develops
within the self and is visual, guilt depends on the external
judge and is aural.” As she observes in a quote from Karl
Marx: “Shame is a revolutionary sentiment!”
16 Lorna Simpson, Screen 4, 1986
Wooden accordion screen, silver gelatin prints, vinyl
lettering
Andover, MA, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips
Academy, museum purchase
Screen 4 is one of several screens in which Lorna Simpson
accompanies black-and-white photographic images witha text to form a narrative. As Bonita McLaughlin writes:“Simpson calls attention to the emphasis on sexuality sooften found in representations of black women by simply
omitting it. Standing with arms crossed, or at her sides, oron her hips, and wearing the ubiquitous white shift, here
baggy and wrinkled, Simpson’s model chooses neither
to please nor attract. The gap between her reality andthe desire for pleasure inherent in the male gaze is also
alluded to in the words inscribed on one of the panels: ‘She
was no more exotic than the sparse room she posed in’.”
17 William N. Copley, Konku, 1982
Acrylic and marker on canvas in wood frame
Cologne, Private collection
The patriarchal and stereotypical distinction between‘good’ and ‘bad’ women and a sense of both a female
and a male realm is evident in Konku, one of several
folding screens the artist made. The figure of theprostitute recurred in Copley’s work, and, indebted toSurrealism, the artist used humor to subvert, in this casethe idealized female figure and the sense of ‘modesty’that stereotypically accompanied that role. The deliberate
flatness of the image, with a body devoid of shadow ormodeling and featuring a composition seemingly more
related to sign painting in its pictorial depth, or lack thereof,
shows Copley’s multifaceted influence from cinema, pinups,
and cartoons.
18 Francesco Vezzoli, The Assassination of Trotsky, 2023
Dressing mirror designed by Alain Delon for Maison
Jansen (1970s: glass, wood, cipria fabric, gilt brass inserts),

inkjet print, acrylic painting
Courtesy of the artist
Francesco Vezzoli’s found object screen is named after
the 1972 film starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. As
the artist explains: “It is actually a screen designed by
Alain Delon at a moment in his career when he must havethought that his sex appeal was so universal that it could
be applied even to interior decoration. Given the tormented
love life of Delon himself, I deemed it appropriate toreproduce an image of Romy Schneider on the mirror. As if
Delon could never get over the sense of guilt for the way hetreated her or for the way their love ended.”
19 Elmgreen & Dragset, Paravent, 2008
Folding screen, glory holes, two pair of Levi’s 501 jeans,
toilet paper holder, toilet paper
Paris, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne /Centre de création industrielle“My favorite piece of sculpture is a solid wall with a holein it to frame the space on the other side.” Humor, alongwith Andy Warhol’s sculptural predilection, comes to passin Elmgreen & Dragset’s work, which consists of a folding
screen with two glory holes, and, in a neat twist, of someproduct (dis)placement—two pairs of discarded Levi’s 501
jeans and toilet paper, in overt queer references.
20 Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Folding Screen (Five-Part), 1979
Photographs, gelatin silver print on paper, and acrylic painton woodLondon, Tate
Not dissimilar to the projects of Kenneth Halliwell and
Joe Orton’s flat [21], from 1975 to 1979, Marc Camille
Chaimowicz designed the interior of his flat in Approach
Road, London, as a total work of art or scenography.
Across shifting views and vantage points, and both recto
and verso, Folding Screen (Five-Part) features black-andwhite photographs that document couples in domestic
interiors and private moments, a lone man, an empty
landscape, and images of the screen itself prior to any
decoration, collaged over the painted panels resembling
wallpaper, with some of the photographs hand-tinted anddecorated with gestural brush marks. Here, as elsewherein his work, Chaimowicz characteristically collapses
the distinctions and boundaries between sculpture,
painting, drawing, photography, performance, installation,
abstraction, and the decorative arts to instead create aliving tableau.
21 Kenneth Halliwell, Cat Screen, 1966
Wood, paper, fabricLondon, Islington Museum
If decoupage has long been a mainstay of decorating
folding screens, the collage from the Islington home of
the artist Kenneth Halliwell and his partner, the playwright
Joe Orton, adds a very particular twist to this tradition.
Decorated with newspaper clippings and hundredsof images of cats, it was created by Halliwell at theirhome shortly before he murdered the playwright andkilled himself in August 1967. During the time they lived
together in Noel Road, Halliwell and Orton defaced

books from Islington libraries by pasting in pictures ofmale nudes, toys, and birds and then returning them fortheir interventions to be discovered by unsuspecting
borrowers, before they were eventually caught andsentenced in 1962 to six months in prison for theft and‘malicious damage.’ It is an irony that Islington Museum, in
addition to this screen, now owns 43 of the library books‘defaced’ by Halliwell and Orton and considers themworks of art.
22 Kai Althoff, Untitled (Screen), 2004
Velvet, leather, fabric, and photograph on aluminum onpressboard
Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Gift ofBlake Byrne
Made of velvet, leather, and photographs of 1980s malemodels collaged onto aluminum, this work continues,
in a different format, Kai Althoff’s investigations into
masculinity and sexuality.
23 Duncan Grant, Omega Screen, 1913
Painted wooden panels, reverse side repainted by Grant
in 1969
Lewes, UK, The Charleston TrustAt the height of World War I, a young Duncan Grant moved
to Charleston—a pretty much queer paradise in the East
Sussex—with Vanessa Bell, and they began decorating
the entire farmhouse in a manner indebted to both Italianfresco painting and the Post-Impressionists. The screenthat Grant created for the Omega Workshops in 1913 isborrowed from Vanessa Bell’s bedroom at Charleston forthis exhibition. The front, with two figures, male and female,carrying a blue pail of milk between them, with a red barnlike building in the background, was begun in 1913, when
Grant and Roger Fry co-founded with Vanessa Bell the
Omega Workshops, a design company intended to bring
Post-Impressionism into the home and to make art and life
merge.
24 Hernan Bas, Decorative Screen for the Solarium of a
Homosexual’s Home (Fading Sunflowers), 2012
Acrylic and genuine gold and silver leaf on linen mounted
in a birch-wood and genuine gold leaf frame
Courtesy of the Artist & Perrotin
This work is one of a number of folding screens Hernan Bas
had made, often using gold and silver leaf, and explicitly
exploring homosexuality identity and aesthetics.
25 Francis Bacon, Painted Screen, c. 1929
Oil on plywood with metal hinges
Private collection
One wonders how much Francis Bacon looked to Omega
Workshops [23] when he set up his own business as aninterior designer, creating from 1928–30 carpets, tables,
chairs, and of course Painted Screen. The trigger for
it was apparently Bacon’s encounter with Art Déco in
Paris and especially the influence of Eileen Gray, whose
showroom, the Galerie Jean Désert, Bacon came across in1928 at the age of eighteen. By the next year, and aroundthe time this screen was made in London, Bacon opened

his own design studio at 17 Queensberry Mews, withbusiness cards that read: “Francis Bacon – Modern
Decoration, Furniture in Metal, Glass and Wood/Rugs andLights.” Compare this pride to his later shame about his
decorative origins: “He never mentioned” them, Bacon’s
biographer Michael Peppiatt explains. “Decoration was
one of the foulest words in his vocabulary after that.”Indeed, this work remained unseen during Bacon’s
lifetime, and was only publicly exhibited in 1993, andlater on Bacon would describe his painting practice as“clearing away the screens” that obstruct our perceptionof raw sensation. Painted Screen contains the first of hislarge figures while its triptych format anticipates his laterand characteristic adoption of this form for his paintings.
The composition has clear references to the work of
Giorgio de Chirico, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso. It
is worth noting that Bacon saw Paul Rosenberg’s 1927
exhibition of Picasso’s drawings and that the art dealer
had at that time in his stock a folding screen by Picassofrom the early 1920s—a possible influence on this screen
by Bacon [42].
26 Tiffany Sia, The Sojourn, 2023
Video, 32’, aluminum alloy divider stand frame with
polyester curtain
Courtesy of the artist and FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
Tiffany Sia’s video interrogates the notion of the sublime
landscape and the way this can be used to underpin
national identity, and thus the way that even the pastoral ispolitical, also playing with the double meaning of ‘screens’
in the process. As she says, “In producing a time-based
paravent, I’m proposing to explore the possibilities
and double meaning of ‘screen culture’ and temporality,
unfolding the tensions between animate moving image
form and inanimate sculptural form of screens.” Siaprojects a new video of a sublime and timeless landscape
as a homage to King Hu, the Beijing-born filmmaker who
was exiled in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
27 Screen painted by two different artists on the two sides:
Pedro de Villegas, The Conquest of Mexico by Hernán
Cortés, 1718
Unknown Mexican artist, Chinese scenes, c. 1718
Oil on canvas and painted wood
Trieste, Italy, Museo Storico e il Parco del Castello di
MiramareBoth recto and verso are critical and telling. The Conquestof Mexico by Hernán Cortés, which unfolds across ten
panels, is painted on the reverse side of an Eastern screen.
This is a prime example among many in colonial Mexico,
where folding screens were both luxury objects and sitesof experimentation in secular painting.
28 Tony Cokes, Untitled (Sol LeWitt 1967, 1968, 1989), 2023
LED video walls, soundCourtesy of the artist, Greene Naftali, New York, Hannah
Hoffman, Los Angeles, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna, andElectronic Arts Intermix, New York
Tony Cokes meditates on a folding screen made in 1989 by
Sol LeWitt that begs the question of form: is it a painting,a sculpture, or neither?”. As the artist says, “My ongoing
concern with certain tropes of minimal form is to think
about how such forms might interact with social critique
as explicit content. I fully understand that these forms
historically could be read as relatively separate from directreference to the political or social.”
29 Goshka Macuga, in time or space or state, 2023
Piles of bookshelves, divider made of 3 sections
Courtesy of the artist
Partitions, now not just spatial and functional, but national,
geographical, and cultural, form the contours of in time orspace or state. The artist examines how these different
identities can coexist (or not) and probes the fault line
between them by creating a folding screen comprised ofbookshelves filled with books from six countries—covering
a range of topics, such as politics, economics, and history—each of which are either in conflict with another or withsignificant tensions between them: Israel and Palestine,
Russia and Ukraine, and China and Taiwan, with thedivide between each pair underscored by the fact that thecountries are on opposite sides of the screen. However,some of the books are paired, showing how slippery a rigid
distinction between ‘them and us’ can be and how illusory
a monolithic idea of national identity is.
30 Mona Hatoum, Grater Divide, 2002
Mild steel [AP]
Courtesy of the artist
Parody is another strategy to question the unsettled statusof folding screens. Mona Hatoum takes wordplay and analmost Surrealist displacement of an object by creating
an oversize, human-scale cheese grater, that here morphs
this commonplace kitchen utensil into a freestanding
folding screen to create something humorous yet
menacing.
31 Isa Genzken, Paravent, 1990
Reinforced concrete, aluminum, hinges
Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und
Kunstbau, KiCo Foundation
Isa Genzken’s Paravent is one of a large number of ironic
folding screens that she executed in concrete between
1986 and 1992. She then switched to using epoxy resin
to create architectural structures, such as windows andparavents, some of them quite monumental. Here thedistinction between the two functions—a window or afolding screen—is collapsed by being seemingly an
empty armature that frames the view beyond.
PODIUM+1
32 Jean Prouvé, Panneau séparatif insonorisé, créé pour leCentre national d’enseignement technique de Cachan,
1955
Bent steel and perforated aluminumPrivate collection
As of 1924, Prouvé began producing modern furniture
in metal and wood with leading designers, including Le
Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand. Inspired by the linearaesthetics of airplanes, he developed a style based onclean, streamlined forms and produced his experimental
designs in aluminum and steel. Believing in the politicaland social power of design, he worked enthusiasticallyon the development of prefabricated products. In 1947
Prouvé opened a factory in Maxéville that specialized in
prefabricated buildings and furniture based on the useof folded or stamped metal sheets. This soundproofed
panel board was designed for the Centre nationald’enseignement technique de Cachan in 1955.
33 Folding screen, China, 2nd half of the 17th century
Wood covered in carved and colored lacquer with oil
paint, gilt copper mounts and leather binds
Lisbon, Fundação Oriente - Museu do Oriente
In 1543, according to 16th-century Portuguese sources,a trading boat in the South China Sea was thrown off
course by a typhoon and ended up in the Japaneseislands. Having survived the storm, the ship’s crew
anchored in an archipelago embroiled in a civil war.
Piracy along the coast of China had led the government
in Beijing to break off relations with Japan. This
circumstance provided the Portuguese merchants with
an opportunity, as they were aware of the Japaneselords’ willingness to pay for Chinese silk in silver, great
quantities of which were mined in the country. An
agreement was thus secured, by which the Portuguese
were allowed to play an active role in the trade between
China and Japan, resulting in the settlement of thePortuguese on the coast in Guandong, thereby creatinga port of call on the route from Malacca to Japan. In a
few years, Macao became one of the South China Sea’s
largest and busiest ports.
34 Six scenes from the story of Prince Genji (Genji monogatari),
Japan, early 17th century
Ink, colors, and gold on gilded paper
Neuss, Germany, Viktor and Marianne Langen Collection
This Japanese Edo-period screen, one of a pair, depicts theSix Scenes from the Story of Prince Genji, based on The
Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu, a female courtier,around the 11th century. Set in Kyoto, this romantic novel
charts the relationships of Prince Genji across fifty-fourchapters.
35 ‘Coromandel’ screen, China, late 17th century
Lacquer, oriental wood, paper
Lisbon, Museo Calouste Gulbenkian
This fine example of a ‘Coromandel’ screen was a birthday
gift to a dignitary such as a marshal or general and wastherefore, and importantly, not for export, as was the casewith most pieces depicting both Eastern and Westernscenes. This screen is also distinctive and unusual for
its complex, interlocking, and multi-layered composition.
Below and across ten of the panels, the dignitary is
depicted sitting and watching a performance in one of thepavilions of what we presume is his palace, while otherscenes around him show guests arriving and servants
preparing his birthday celebrations.

36 Watanabe Shikô, Handing over a Horse, Japan, 18th century
Ink and light colors on paper
Neuss, Germany, Viktor and Marianne Langen Collection
This screen, one of a pair, depicts an ancient custom
celebrated annually at the imperial court. On August
16 each year, the emperor used to choose a number ofhorses from different parts of Japan. To prepare the event,an imperial official would meet the people responsible forselecting and transporting the horses to a location close
to Kyôto. The image shows the people who brought thehorse paying tribute to the imperial official. Apart from thepale gold applied by brush to form the background andthe pale colors of the garments and leaves, the painting is
mainly depicted in ink.
37 Folding screen with painted scenes on red background,Southern China, 18th century
Wood, kaolin paste, lacquer, gold, and oil painting
Private collection
The iconography in the screen references the Romanceof the Three Kingdoms attributed to Luo Guanzhong (c.
1315–1400). The story takes place between the years 169
and 280, the time between the disintegration and fall of
the Han dynasty, the division of the empire into three
kingdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu), and the final unification
under the Jin. About a thousand characters appear in
the romance and provide an insight into the diversity ofChinese culture, with an emphasis on social and religious
practices. The use of perspective and chiaroscuro createsa hybrid pictorial style that combines Western realism with
Chinese stylistic characteristics.
38 Folding Screen with Scenes in and around Kyoto, Japan,
18th/19th century
Ink, color, crushed shell, and gold on gilded paper,
mounted on brocade
Portugal, Private collection
The painting offers a detailed view of Japan’s ancient
capital, Kyoto, in gold and colored ink, surrounded by
edging in black and gold brocade. Bands of golden clouds
executed using the okiage technique (gold leaf over arelief formed by seashells) separate buildings and busy
streets. The aerial view centers on the eastern part of thecapital, with the north to the left, including the Kamo Riverand Imperial Palace. Set among the many stores andbusinesses shown, the names of places and temples are
given with a small written label (harifuda).
39 Folding screen, Japan, 18th century
Ink, color, paper, and gold on paper
Vienna, MAK – Museum für Angewandte Kunst
Invented in Japan, the fan was a popular product exported
to China and Korea as early as the 15th century. Paintersof different schools and origins produced these objects
in monochrome ink or in polychrome styles. As fans weregenerally replaced at the end of the year, demand wascontinuous for both daily use and decoration. It soon
became customary to glue used fans onto the panels offolding screens, due in part to the wish to hold onto thosethat were particularly beautiful or precious.

40 Folding screen, Japan, 18th–early 19th century
Gouache and gold on silver leaf applied on paper, reverse
with painted silk on paper, wooden structure and fittingslacquered in black
Rotterdam, FENIX Collection
In the 16th century, after accidentally anchoring off
the coast of Tanegashima Island, off southern Kyushu,
the Portuguese were associated with the geographic
south and began to be referred to by the collective term
nanbanjin, derived from the ancient Chinese expression
for foreigners living in southern China. The influenceof nanban culture during this period was extensive,
especially in relation to artistic representations. The
arrival of the Portuguese in Japan inspired a new genreof painted screens, known as nanban byoˉbu (“screensof the southern barbarians”). Nanban screens reveal thefascination of the Japanese with the strange physicalfeatures, curious customs, and habits of Europeans, and adesire to learn about the outside world. In this 18th-century,
two-panel Japanese screen, the artist has shown a groupof Europeans accompanied by a dog in colored ink andgold, on sheets of metal alloy or silver applied on paper.
41 Josef Hoffmann, Three-Panel Screen, c. 1899
Gilded incised leather panels with ebonized wood frameand brass detailing
Brighton, UK, Brighton & Hove Museums
Josef Hoffmann’s Three-Panel Screen stands for themarked revival of interest in folding screens in Western
Europe during the 19th century by an extraordinary arrayof architects and artists, especially those associatedwith Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and in thisparticular case one of the founders of the Vienna Secession
and Wiener Werkstätte.
42 Pablo Picasso, Paravent, c. 1915–16 /1922
Oil on canvas and enamel paint
Madrid, Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso
Consider the Cubist collision of two screens from the early
1920s, which cut across both painting and architecture:
Pablo Picasso’s Paravent, a three-panel screen painted ina late Cubist style on both sides, made during the period
when he was oscillating between Cubist and Neoclassicalstyles, and was presumably the same folding screen that
Francis Bacon saw in 1927 [25].
43 Eileen Gray, Brick Screen, c. 1925
Black lacquered wood, steel, brass
Paris, Collection of J. & M. Donnelly
Brick Screen is part of a series beginning with one she
designed for the Paris apartment of Madame Juliette
Lévy. Made of horizontal rows of black urushi lacqueredwood ‘bricks’ joined by steel rods, creating columns andultimately a wall that plays with solid and void, the lattercreates a porous partition without blocking sightlines andstraddles the boundaries between furniture, sculpture,
and architecture. Gray’s characteristic use of lacquer is a
nod to Japanese decorative arts. As Gray explained, “Thescreens are a revolt,” a riposte to the taste of that time.

44 René Magritte, Paravent décoratif, 1928–30
Oil on wood in 3 parts
René Gaffe collection
Private collection. Courtesy Philip Serck. In temporary
loan at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium,
Brussels
At first glance, René Magritte’s Paravent décoratif
seemingly departs from his enigmatic thought-provoking
signature style that features ordinary objects placedin unusual or unexpected contexts. However, in linewith Magritte’s common exploration of illusion and thesubconscious mind, with Paravent décoratif, the painting
itself becomes the object. As the title suggests, thescreen stays true to one of its primary functions. The
decorative 3-panel screen contains three looping figuresin a faded blue that fade into a pitch-black background.
45 Giacomo Balla, Paravento - Forme compenetrate + balfiori,
1932
Oil on board
Rome, Private collection
Paravento - Forme compenetrate + balfiori is one ofmany screens that Giacomo Balla made as part of allenveloping artistic vision that often extended beyond thepicture plane to encompass fashion and design.
46 Le Pho, Paysage du Tonkin (Landscape of Tonkin), 1932–34
Laquer on panel
Collection of the Lam Family
Paysage du Tonkin (Landscape of Tonkin) is the largest
known Vietnamese lacquer painting executed by Le Pho,and one of very few. There is a marked asymmetry acrossthe three panels, with foliage offset against geometricelements inspired by Jean Dunand, whom Le Pho had
met at the Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931, who hadin turn been influenced in his adoption of Asian lacquer
techniques by Eileen Grey’s mentor Seizo Sugawara,
showing this reciprocal series of influences andexchanges across cultures.
47 Man Ray, Les yeux fertiles (Dédié à Falil Elliard), 1935
Oil on board
Private collection
Man Ray drew inspiration for this screen from the linesthat the poet Paul Éluard, his close friend, dedicatedto him in Les yeux fertiles, published in 1934. The
young woman in the central panel, a reinterpretation of
Botticelli’s Venus, lifts her dress to cover her face andhands; she stands between a row of hypnotic red eyes
and a three-story fountain from which bodiless hands
holding each other sprout. The work is pervaded by anerotic atmosphere, as in the maiden’s nudity and thefalling star in the background, a veiled sexual innuendo.
48 Yves Klein, Paravent [Screen] (IKB 62), 1957
Dry pigment and synthetic resin on wooden panels
Private collection
In his text Remarques sur quelques œuvres exposées àla galerie Colette Allendy on folding screens, written in
1957, Yves Klein stated that “Screens allowed the blue

to be confined. They could be arranged in a semicircle
so that the observer could view the work while standingat the center point of the diameter.” In this work of thesame year, Klein applied pure saturated and luminous
IKB 62 pigments mixed with synthetic resin on the fivepanel structure of the screen, continuing his pursuit of an
intimate correspondence with the human scale.
49 Le Corbusier, Paravent for la Cité Radieuse, Marseille,
France, 1950
Oak, polychrome vinyl, gold metal
Private collection
Paravent for la Cité Radieuse, Marseille, France should
be seen within Le Corbusier’s broader architecturalvision for the Unité d’habitation. The Unité d’habitation
was a modernist urban housing concept developed by
Le Corbusier embodying his ideas about efficient living
spaces and communal living within urban environments.
The paravent is an element that plays a part within thislarger construct. It efficiently helps define interior spaces,
providing privacy while allowing for flexibility within
the spaces designed for human proportions using theModulor.
50 Pierre Jeanneret, PJ-DIVERS-01-A, 1957–58
Teak and cotton fabric
Zurich, P!Galerie
Pierre Jeanneret made PJ-DIVERS-01-A for the Indian cityof Chandigarh, which he undertook in 1947 as part of acommission to design, build and furnish the city along thelines of a utopian vision.
51 Alvar Aalto, Screen, Model nr. 100, 1940
Wood
Private collection
52 Charles and Ray Eames, Folding Screen FSW 8, 1948
Plywood, woven polypropylene mesh
Private collection
Materiality, in this case wood, comes to the fore with Alvar
Aalto’s Screen, Model nr. 100 [51], produced by Artek, andCharles and Ray Eames’ Folding Screen FSW 8, made of
their pioneering molded plywood and a landmark of midcentury design.
53 Carla Accardi, Paravento, 1972
Wood and acrylic on Sicofoil
Dunkerque, France, Collection Frac Grand Large — Hautsde-France
Carla Accardi’s Paravento is one of her paintings ofcalligraphic and repetitive gestural marks on transparent
Sicofoil. Here, it is turned into a folding screen andcontinues her works that merge the organic and theinorganic, painting and sculpture, including those thatcreated habitats, such as tents.
54 Marlene Dumas, Paravent, 1984
Oil on plywood in beech frame
Private collection
Marlene Dumas’ screen is representative of the intenseemotional content of her figurative paintings at the time.
Bold, expressive brush strokes make up eight nude
figures on either side of the four-panel screen. Perhaps
at first glance genderless, the figures on one side of
the screen are depicted with male organs, the otherfemale in an evocation of the themes strongly present inDumas’s work related to identity, sexuality, desire, and thecomplexities of the human experience.
55 Sol LeWitt, Untitled Screen, 1987
Ink on screen boards
Collection of Lisson Gallery, London
In Untitled Screen Sol LeWitt continued his research on
modular geometric structures in the context of minimal
art, developing the figure on the two sides of the work’s
five panels. The tendency toward a third dimension, as
well as the propensity to go beyond the support, werecharacteristics already present respectively in his“Structures” and “Wall Drawings” of the 1960s. Referringto the many screens he had executed, in 1969 LeWitt
wrote, “In my case, I used the elements of these simple
forms—square, cube, line and color—to produce logicalsystems. Most of these systems were finite; that is, they
were complete using all possible variations. This kept
them simple.”
56 Franz West, Paravent, 2010
Metal, wood, acrylic paintFrankfurt, Museum MMK Für Moderne Kunst
Franz West’s pink Paravent is typical of his singular andplayful approach to the traditional status of sculpture, theimportance of social interaction, the division between ‘high’and ‘low,’ and the notion of beauty and utility.
57 Takesada Matsutani, Paravent, 1987
Graphite and turpentine on paper
Private collection
Takesada Matsutani’s Paravent reflects his role as a painterand a member of the Gutai Art Association from 1963 until
its dissolution in 1972.
58 Cy Twombly, Paravent, 1989
Oil-based house paint, acrylic, on three connected wooden
panelsPrivate collection
Cy Twombly’s Paravent has never been exhibited, isdecorated with the same peony motif of Edo-period
screens, and is important in being an influence on his ten
later Untitled paintings from 2006–07. The main theme ofworks like this is Japonisme, and it features prominently
the 17th-century haiku poetry of Basho. John Cage also
had a keen interest in Zen Buddhism and Haiku, and in Fall
1951 he and Twombly attended lectures on these subjects
by the Japanese philosopher Daisetz T. Suzuki at Columbia
University in New York.
59 Kerry James Marshall, “Untitled” Rythm Mastr Splash, 2023
Inkjet print on PVC panel in four parts
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, London
Choosing a frontal view and a purely pictorial approachfor his screen, Marshall here continues his series Rhythm
Mastr, in which he depicts black superheroes in comic
books, from which they were traditionally excluded.
Taking his inspiration from Marvel comics, H.G Wells, Ray
Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, Samuel R. Delany, and Octavia
Butler, Marshall’s organizes his composition by borrowing
the spatial logic of comic books, exploiting the narrative
potential offered by the structure of the screen.
60 T.J. Wilcox, Radio City Music Hall, 2010
Acetate, foil, birch, MDF
Including The Heir and Astaire, 2010
HD Video, 9’50’’, exhibition copy
Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Radio City Music Hall, with its related video The Heir andAstaire, is one of a number of folding screens he has made.
This one focuses on the unlikely marriage between theAmerican star Adele Astaire (sister of Fred) and the British
aristocrat Lord Charles Cavendish, who made for a very
modern couple. In a formal device which also plays with
the idea of the cinematic projected image and the glittering
aesthetics of the Jazz Age, Wilcox reminds us how
important the folding screen was in the 1920s and 1930s
due to figures such as Eileen Gray.
61 Laura Owens, Untitled, 2023
wood, paper, acrylic paint, oil paint, felt flocking
Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London
Emphasizing the liminal aspect of the screen, which refers
to both painting and bookmaking in his practice, in this work
Laura Owens employs a variety of techniques, including
silkscreen, oils, and acrylics on paper and silk. Owens
believes in the dignity of the concept of decoration, which
she does by destabilizing the authority of the single-point
perspective of paintings made to be hung on a wall. In
Untitled the plane is broken into a triptych of three equalparts, each offering a different perspective. The different
ways of organizing the screen thus alter the viewpoints used.
62 William Kentridge, Untitled (Bread is Not Cut, Bread is
Broken), 2023
Indian ink, litho crayon, found paper, watercolor, pencil,
colored pencil, and collage on painted canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan
William Kentridge emphasizes the text components of thework, superimposed on the image. The drawing originatesfrom a series conceived by the artist for the theater
project The Great Yes, The Great No about a voyage from
Marseille to Martinique in 1941. The image stands for the
wildness and lushness of the vegetation in Martinique,while also emphasizing the domestic dimension of theparavents. The front of the paravent is made out of fivecanvas stretchers with stretched canvas on them, while
the back might have notes about it, exhibition histories,
different stickers. The front is what one presents tothe world, in terms of one’s domestic life, and the backrepresents more private anxieties and fears in the text.
The texts all come from the opera’s libretto, which is about
poets from the Caribbean and the shift from Europe to adifferent surrealist world.

63 Keiichi Tanaami, Utopian Situation by “Guernica,” 2023
Pigmented ink, acrylic silkscreen medium, crashed glass,glitter, acrylic paint on canvas, wood frame
Courtesy of the artist
Keiichi Tanaami’s work features themes from American
pop culture combined with stylistic characteristics andtechniques typical of Japanese illustration. Characterstaken from animated cartoons and films, and placedin surreal or psychedelic settings, meet iconic figuresfrom such artworks as Guernica, thereby expressing therejection of the formal hierarchies of Neo-Dada. Favoring
methodology over the medium, Tanaami’s practice isderived from various disciplines, including graphic novels,
collage, sculpture, painting, and film. His work is producedby the crystallization of moving images, alluding to the useof screens as props in Kabuki theater and Kamishibai, thetraditional form of storytelling using paper images, which
originated in the Buddhist temples of 12th-century Japan.
64 Kamrooz Aram, Privacy Screen for Public Architecture, 2022
Oil, oil crayon and pencil on linen, hinged with artist’s
frame
Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery
This monumental screen draws upon two sets of seemingly
divergent cultural references, in this case the tessellated
patterns of Iranian architecture and decoration, andNatalia Goncharova’s Spring (1927/28), a painting of similardimensions.
65 Betye Saar, Snake Screen, 2023
Watercolor and pencil on 15 sheets of paper, housed in 15
glass panels
Courtesy of the Artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles
The image of the snake or serpent has been recurrent in
Betye Saar’s artwork, a symbol of many concepts—creation,
fertility, temptation, the occult, cleverness. Often present in
her assemblages, these figures seem to be moving behindthe panes, as if one was viewing them safely through awindow.
66 Wade Guyton, Untitled [WG5525], 2023
Five panels, Epson UltraChrome HDX inkjet on linen
Courtesy of the artist
In his work, Wade Guyton started from his typical painting
format of 213 x 175 cm, cutting the paintings in halfvertically to a size of 213 x 87.5 cm. His recurrent strategy
consists in employing the vertical fold to fit through theprinter, an element which in this case marks the structureof the paravent. Images of paintings in process are thesubject of the paintings themselves. The iconographic
apparatus also includes bitmap files and the view of theinstallation of Museum Ludwig in Köln, in which the metal
scaffolding used to hang the work are visible, conveying
the context in which the works were produced. The
contamination of painting with design, graphic design,
sculpture, and furniture questions the work status.
67 Chris Ofili, Pink Daydream (Ghost), 2023
Embroidery on silk organza with maple frame in four parts
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner

This work is based on images elaborated by the artist in
response to Stéphane Mallarmé L’après-midi d’un faune(1876), a poem about a faun who, upon awakening fromsleep, recalls an erotic encounter with nymphs as heattempts to reconcile what actually happened and what
can exist only in his oneiric world.
The images are especially derived by a series of etchings
by the artist, Pink Daydreams of a Faun (2021), printed on
Suminagashi paintings, the Japanese art of paper marbling.
In this paravent, Chris Ofili translated the etched linear
contours and the free forms of the colored inks and water
onto a shimmering silk embroidery, hinting at dreamlike
imagery.
68 Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Face Value, 2021
Textile, acrylic, wooden paravent
Courtesy of the artist, Karma International, Zurich, andFoksal Gallery Foundation,
Warsaw
Face Value is emblematic of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s workthat addresses anti-Romani stereotypes and instead
proposes a more positive image of Romani cultures. As
with this folding screen, this is often done through vibranttextile collages from found materials and fabrics sourced
from her family and friends, a patchwork which imbues
them with a sense of a multitude of lives lived.
69 Atelier E.B (Beca Lipscombe & Lucy McKenzie), VIII –Uchiwa-é/Show fantasy escalette, 2015
Oil on canvas mounted on wood, silkscreen on cotton
calico earl grey dip-dyed on wood, steel frame
Berlin, Galerie Buchholz
A double-sided screen in six parts, of which the two artistsof Atelier E.B each painted one side, charts an unlikely
influence of Italian culture and fashion in Scotland in the
1980s. As Lucy McKenzie comments: “The term ‘Paninaro’refers to an Italian youth scene that met at the Panino cafein Milan in the early 1980s. Embraced by the children of
middle- and upper-class professionals, these wealthy
Italian youngsters distinguished their tribe with designer
clothes. Their look and attitude inspired the Euro casual
look that my friends and I were so keen to emulate. The‘Paninaro’ scene was diffused in Italy through Berlusconi’s
television channels, that transmitted messages ofconsumerism and fostered a creative self-affirmation
among youth through the acquisition of status symbols.”
70 David Hockney, Caribbean Tea Time, 1987
Lithograph, screen print, printed paper, and stencil on
paper
London, Tate, presented by the artist 1993
Caribbean Tea Time is one of a number of folding screensDavid Hockney made or referenced in his paintings. The
work attests the influence of his designs for the theater andphotographic collages during the 1980s, with references in
the use of quasi-Cubist shapes and spatial experiments to
his set designs for Parade, Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and
L’Enfant et les Sortileges, a trilogy that premiered at theMetropolitan Opera in New York in 1981.