Mario Naves reviews the exhibition Storytelling in Japanese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view through May 6, 2012.

Naves writes that "The advent and subsequent triumph of modernism did much to diminish the role of narrative in the visual arts, insisting, as it did, that the exigencies of craft should take precedence over anything smacking of literature." He continues, noting that "modernism is an historical blip… Narratives have dominated world art… Thoughts about narrative – about temporal flow, cultural myths and the human imagination’s range, influence and probity – came to mind while viewing Storytelling in Japanese Art."