PORTLAND.- The Portland Art Museum will present the exhibit Through Rustling Grasses: Nature in the Japanese Print starting on June 17. The theme of nature that runs through all the prints in this exhibition offers a panorama of the styles and concerns that Japanese artists have explored since the mid-1700s. All the prints depict some aspect of the natural world - a landscape, a close-up of flora and fauna, or an interpretation of earthen elements - and contain, at most, only a trace of human presence.

In Japan, nature can turn violent, inflicting disaster on the inhabitants of the archipelago that stretches from the rugged north with its long, bone-chilling winters to the tropical south, which is pelted each year by drenching typhoons. Earthquakes, fires, volcanoes, droughts, and storms are the ecological realities that Japanese society has confronted constantly in its struggle to maintain its place in the natural order.

And yet, a gentler perception of nature has informed Japanese art since antiquity. The permutations of atmosphere contrasted against the unchanging structures of the land, the transience of seasonal foliage, and the cycle of seasons have served as sources of visual poetry with deep spiritual resonance. From Japan's earliest cultural expressions, people saw in the beauty of nature apt symbols of a universal order, its moods and evanescence reflecting the impermanence of human existence.

This exhibition of approximately 70 prints displays works from the 18th - 20th centuries and is drawn from the collection of the Portland Art Museum.