Highlights
Shokoku-ji Jotenkaku Museum 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Legacy of Zen Temples: Shokoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto
Over the centuries, Zen Buddhism and its institutions have served as a catalyst for the creation and preservation of Japanese art. Zen monasteries have built up extraordinary collections of artworks and transmitted them from generation to generation. This is especially the case for one of the most prominent monasteries in Japanese history, Kyoto’s Shōkoku-ji.
Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theatre in Japanese Prints
The exhibition ‘Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints’ is currently on view in Washington, DC, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA; 23 March–6 October 2024). The origin of the exhibition dates back more than fifteen years but was buoyed into reality by two major acquisitions.
From Cocoons to Kaftans: Splendid Silks at the Sogdian Court in Samarkand
For those interested in the history of silk and the movement of materials, techniques, and motifs along the Silk Roads, the 7th century wall painting programme from the so-called ‘Hall of Ambassadors’ in the Sogdian city of Samarkand (in present-day Uzbekistan) offers a rich source of illuminating knowledge.
Village Abstraction: Patchwork Textiles in Rural China
The historical trail of these Chinese patchworked textiles winds back almost two thousand years, with the entrance of Buddhism to China, and back at least another five hundred years in India. The tradition carried with it not only the concept of stitching together fabric scraps but also layers of meanings attached to such assembling.
Splendid Patchwork: Buddhist Monastic Robes from Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) has cultivated a distinguished collection of Chinese art with notable strengths in several areas. Qing dynasty (1644–1911) silk textiles are represented with nearly one thousand works, comprising one of the largest and best collections in the West.
Abstract Evolutions: Sixty Years of Paintings by Fong Chung-Ray
With an artistic career spanning six decades, Fong Chung-Ray (b. 1933) is an early pioneer of contemporary Chinese art. The recent retrospective held at the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) at the University of Hong Kong is the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in the city.
Friendship, Network, and Self-Fashioning in Cao Zaikui’s Catalogue of Ancient Bronzes
Antiquarianism (jinshixue) established itself as a respected academic discipline in the Song dynasty (960–1279) and gained significant prominence in the 19th century. Following the reign of the emperor Jiaqing (1796–1820), more scholars collected and published bronze and stone inscriptions to verify and supplement classical and historical records found in transmitted texts.
An Interview with Chris Hall
In the 1980s I bought both Japanese and Chinese textiles. I decided to focus on Chinese textiles because I could see there was a unique opportunity to put together a great collection whereas I could not do the same with Japanese textiles.
Japanese Gift Covers from the Chris Hall Collection
In Japan, squares of lined silk called fukusa were used to cover and exchange formal gifts. Exquisitely embroidered, woven, painted, and dyed, fukusa are some of the finest examples of Japanese textile artistry.
On the Trail of Treasure from China’s Lost Summer Palace
Understanding and uncovering where these artworks went after the looting is a fascinating exercise in detective work that runs through libraries, palaces, auction archives, museums, and private houses around Europe and the United States.
‘東海道 Tōkaidō: Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige’ at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Hiroshige exhibition is a rare treat for enthusiasts of Asian art in Canada. Unlike our American neighbours , who frequently host Asian art exhibitions, Canadian institutions seldom showcase such focused displays.
John Thomson’s Photography of Hong Kong: Picturesque Landscape and ‘Types’
Born in Edinburgh, John Thomson (1837–1921) was a Scottish geographer, traveller, and photographer. He was the first known photographer to document China and, unlike most Western photographers of the time who stayed in the coastal treaty ports, he travelled to the interior of China.
Exhibition Review: China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta
In the fall semester of 2023, I—and likely every faculty member in North America teaching about the arts of China—had an opportunity to say at least once a week, ‘If you can get to Cleveland before January, you will see this’, referring to one of the more than 240 objects—paintings, metalwork, jade, ceramics, furniture, prints, and calligraphy—on view in ‘China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta’.
Exhibition Review: ‘Art Personalised’ Hong Kong Museum of Art
Some background may be needed to understand the joyful curatorial folie of ‘Art Personalised’, an exhibition on view from 10 November 2023 through 7 April 2024 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMOA). Under the direction of Maria Mok Kar-wing, the museum has pursued an unabashedly populist strategy since it reopened in Tsim Sha Tsui in December 2019, after four years of expansion and renovation.
Remembrance of Things Past: Negotiating a Scholar-Official Identity in Sweetmeat Vendor and a Child
Street vendors were a popular painting subject in both the Song dynasty (960–1279) and the subsequent Yuan dynasty (1272–1368), the transition of which marked the dominion of the Mongol empire over China.
The Religious and Humanistic Context of Chinese Tang-Dynasty Armour Futun (Abdominal Swallowing-like Beast)
The Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) is often regarded as the most wealthy age of ancient Chinese empires, and Tang art elaborately demonstrates the dynasty’s cultural diversity.
In Pursuit of the Picturesque: Jades from the Qianlong Era in the Minneapolis Institute of Art
The reign of Qianlong (r. 1735–96) marked the most glorious period in the long history of jade production in China. The stable imperial power and unprecedented prosperity created an environment in which jade carving could flourish.
Wang Tiande: Transforming Art by Collecting
Trained in Chinese painting and calligraphy at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art), Wang is well versed in classical aesthetics and literati idealism, but remains conscious not to let tradition limit his creativity.
Fascinating Characters: The Art of Writing and Text Cultures in East Asia
The significance and relevance of the art of writing compellingly lends this subject to the opening presentation in this gallery. Calligraphy is omnipresent in East Asia, where writing systems are crucial.
A Lonely Odyssey: The Life and Legacy of Alma M. Karlin
Karlin was by no means the first woman to travel around the world alone, but she was one of the first women to travel on her own for such an extended period.