UPCOMING DISCUSSION
Art Histories, Across and Within: The Rockefeller Collection at Asia Society
Museum Salon Series: Arathi Menon in conversation with Xiaohan Du
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 6:30-8pm
$15 Members | $25 Nonmembers | Discounted Students and Seniors
Today, ideas and inspiration travel swiftly in our hyperconnected world. In the past, this process was slower, more deliberate, and more tangible. It also occurred alongside the transport of goods and raw materials across land and sea. Works of art in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection and featured in our current exhibition Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon—Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy serve as visual archives that trace the many historical paths through which ideas and inspiration traveled across the continent. Join us for a conversation about the fascinating insights they can reveal into the innovations and human connections forged in the globally connected premodern world.
Speaker bios:
Arathi Menon is Associate Professor of Art History at Hamilton College. She is a specialist in the histories of South Asian art. Her research focuses on the material culture of the premodern Indian Ocean World, from the ancient through to the early modern periods.
Menon’s current book project, Building Cosmopolitanism: Hipped & Gabled Malabar, examines the art histories of the Malabar coast of southwestern India, where a particular convergence of sociocultural, economic, and political factors shaped the development of the region’s distinctive hipped and gabled architectural style. The book offers a new framework for understanding the medieval art and architectural history of Malabar’s churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples.
Menon teaches a range of courses in the department of Art History and in the Asian Studies and Middle East/Islamicate Worlds Studies programs. These include courses on the visual portrayal of stories, epics, and oral traditions, histories of architecture and sculpture, and archives of collecting, circulation, and exchange.
Xiaohan Du is the John H. Foster assistant curator of pre-modern Asian art at Asia Society Museum. Xiaohan received her PhD from Columbia University; in her dissertation she wrote about how calligraphy functioned as a visual and diplomatic currency in the life of a Chinese monk who emigrated to Japan in 1299.
To learn more and reserve tickets, click here.
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
Crowned Buddha Seated in Meditation and Sheltered by Muchilinda. Cambodia. Angkor period, Angkor Wat style, possibly 12th century. Copper alloy with recent covering of black and gold lacquer and gold leaf. H. 28 3/4 in. (73 cm); W. 16 1/2 in. (41.91 cm); D. 10 in. (25.4 cm). Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.68a-c
Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy
March 18, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Members-Only Opening: Tuesday, March 17, 5:30-8:45pm
Patrons-Only Preview: Tuesday, March 17, 5:30-6:30pm
In celebration of Asia Society’s 70th anniversary, Asia Society Museum presents Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy.
Displaying seventy of the finest examples of Asian art in the United States drawn from Asia Society’s permanent collection, the exhibition showcases the extraordinary range of bronzes, ceramics, and metalwork thoughtfully assembled between the 1950s and the 1970s by John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1906-1978) and his wife Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller (1909-1992). John D. Rockefeller 3rd founded Asia Society in 1956 with the mission to promote greater knowledge of Asia in the United States; the bequest of the collection to Asia Society in 1979 underscores the Rockefellers’ conviction that an aesthetic encounter with great works of art promotes deep cross-cultural understanding.
With highlights including spectacular Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, and rare Chinese, Korean, and Japanese ceramics, Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon celebrates historic achievements in Asian art spanning more than two millennia. The exhibition foregrounds the transformative power of faith and the catalyzing potential of international trade in the creation of great works of art across Asia.
Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon presents a special opportunity for museum visitors to experience the unparalleled quality of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at its home at Asia Society Museum in New York City.
To learn more, click here.
Krishna and Radha Sheltering in a Pavilion from a Storm. India, Rajput. Guler School, circa 1820. Watercolor, gold and tempera on paper. Asia Society, New York: Gift from Sandra Ferry Rockefeller in memory of John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Blanchette H. Rockefeller, 2025.7
A Legacy Continued: Recent Acquisitions
March 18, 2026 – January 3, 2027
A Legacy Continued features recent acquisitions received from Sandra Ferry Rockefeller and Hope Aldrich in honor of their parents, John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller. These gifts were originally part of Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller’s personal collection, and this display celebrates their homecoming. These pieces complement other works within the museum collection, some of which are included in this exhibition. Together, they offer greater opportunities for comparative studies among them.
Two Chola bronze statues of Hindu deities from Hope Aldrich—a Shiva and a Satyabhama—add to the already magnificent group of Indian Chola bronzes in the collection. From Sandra Ferry, two lovely gilt bronze Chinese Buddhist statues augment the museum’s existing Chinese Buddhist sculptures, while the addition of three Thai works furthers the collection’s strength in Southeast Asian sculpture. See Selected Works in the Exhibition to preview some of these important gifts.
To learn more, click here.
Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller and the Rockefeller Collection
March 18, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Born in New York City to an affluent family from Detroit who owned the Ferry-Morse Seed Company and Hooker Electrochemical Company, Blanchette Ferry Hooker (1909–1992) married John D. Rockefeller 3rd, the grandson of Standard Oil founder, John D. Rockefeller, in 1932. Blanchette shared many interests with her husband, including art and collecting. In 1949, she joined the Junior Council of the Museum of Modern Art and continued a lifelong involvement with the museum, serving as its president twice and as chair of the board.
In the early 1950s, after her husband was appointed to John Foster Dulles’ Peace Treaty Mission to Japan, she became fascinated by Asia. Blanchette shared her husband’s views that art could serve as a cultural bridge between Americans and Asians and, to gain a deeper understanding of Asian art, enrolled in Columbia University’s East Asian Institute from 1954 to 1956. Later, she wrote, “I always felt sorry for John because he was doing the collecting while I was the one having the fun of learning about it.” In the early 1960s, she and her husband began assembling a collection of Asian art that comprises the highest possible craftsmanship and artistry. Rather than a historical survey of the arts of Asia, the collection is one of masterpieces, one with an intentional focus on four principal cultures—Japanese, Chinese, Khmer, and Indian.
After JDR 3rd’s death in 1978, Blanchette remained active at Asia Society, serving on the Asia Society Gallery (now Asia Society Museum) Advisory Committee (1959–1991), and expanding the permanent collection through additional gifts, a selection of which are on display here in celebration of Asia Society’s 70th anniversary.
To learn more, click here.
Tromarama (collective est. 2006, Bandung, Indonesia: Febie Babyrose, Herbert Hans, Ruddy Hatumena). Unbelievable Beliefs, 2012. Indonesia. Single-channel stop-motion animation with sound; sound by Bintang Manira. Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds. Asia Society, New York: Gift of James Woods, 2014.8
Busy, Busy Towns: Moving Images of a Changing Asia
March 18, 2026 – January 3, 2027
This selection of works from the Asia Society Museum Collection explore how rapidly evolving cultural, political, and ecological issues have shaped urban landscapes across contemporary Asia, and in particular China, Indonesia, and Taiwan. The exhibition presents seven works featuring the artists Song Dong, Chen Shaoxiong, Tromarama, and Chen Chieh-jen. The innovative range of styles implemented to produce these moving images—through stop-motion animation of woodcuts, ink painting, or embroidery—among other methods, speaks to the creative depth and diversity of the region. The artists explore the dynamic energy of cities, whether fueled by consumerism and gentrification or by collapsing industries and environmental degradation. Actively reflecting on the regeneration of cityscapes and the subsequent impact on urban lives, these works initiate a renewed dialogue with the current exhibition, (Re)Generations: Rina Bannerjee, Bryon Kim, and Howardena Pindell amid the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection.
To learn more, click here.
