A nayika tricked by her lover’s friend, Vidushaka Nayaka; folio from the “Third” Rasamanjari. India; Himachal Pradesh, Nurpur, circa 1710–1715. Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper. National Museum of Asian Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection—funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art, S2018.1.14
Longing: Painting from the Pahari Kingdoms of the Northwest Himalayas
February 6 – June 7, 2026
Free Exhibition Tours: Every Thursday from February 12–June 4, 2026, 6:30–7:30pm
Featuring more than 40 works of art, Longing: Painting from the Pahari Kingdoms of the Northwest Himalayas displays colorful court paintings from present-day India dating between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. These small, portable paintings were produced for royal and noble patronage by artists practicing unique artistic techniques. Influenced by the region’s culture and politics, they portray moments of leisure, religious devotion, and political positioning, and were given as gifts between regional nobility, families, and political allies. Many paintings portray devotional acts meant to connect with the divine; others depict individuals and couples who yearn for romantic dalliance; still others portray rulers and noblemen who longed to be at the center of political control. Organized around the theme of “longing,” the exhibition encourages visitors to experience art as multisensorial. Select paintings are paired with olfactory stations, touch opportunities, and musical soundscapes to heighten the work’s bhava (emotion or mood) and to encourage multiple ways to physically, intellectually, and emotionally connect with art.
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UPCOMING EXHIBITION
All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016. Yayoi Kusama. Wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, and LED. Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2018.12.A–I. ©YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner.
Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins
July 27 – October18, 2026
Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016) features an array of yellow gourds of various sizes, adorned with black polka dots, that are surrounded by mirrors. The result is an immersive installation that allows the visitor to become part of the artwork as they seemingly enter an infinite field of glowing pumpkins.
All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins illustrates Kusama’s characteristic themes, including infinity and obsessive repetition. The artist has described the pumpkin—one of her quintessential symbols—as a form of self-portraiture. A rare assemblage of a dozen Pumpkin acrylic paintings on canvas made between 1990-2004 will also greet gallery visitors, courtesy of the Masterworks Foundation.
Kusama’s career spans more than seven decades, and her Infinity Mirror Rooms are some of her most experimental and iconic works, often incorporating a variety of illuminated objects. Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field (1965) was Kusama’s first installation to use mirrors to create a sense of endless space, featuring a floor covered in hundreds of red-spotted, white fabric-stuffed tubes. Kusama’s mirrored installations represented an innovative step in the emergence of an increasingly experiential practice. In each work, the visitor’s reflection seems to extend into infinity while they simultaneously have an intimate and individualized room experience.
All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins draws on Kusama’s seminal pumpkin room, Mirror Room (Pumpkin) (1991), which was shown at for the Japanese Pavilion at the 1993 Biennale Arte in Venice.
Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins is on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art.
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PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
South Asian Art, Islamic Art and Antiquities Collections
The Cincinnati Art Museum’s department of South Asian Art, Islamic Art, and Antiquities is honored to steward distinguished collections that include over five thousand works of art. Tracing a trajectory that begins with neolithic period objects from the ancient Middle East, the collection promotes the arts and cultures of a vast geographic region over centuries. Recently, the collection has expanded to include contemporary works from artists based in greater South Asia and the Middle East, as well as diasporic artists in the US and Europe.
The arts of historic South Asia (often defined as modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) are represented through architectural fragments, decorative arts, and paintings. The arts of the Islamic World (defined as countries where Islam was/is widespread, and here concentrates on the Middle East and Central Asia) includes strengths in ceramics, metalwork, and the calligraphic arts.
At the center of the ancient collections are the architectural fragments from Khirbet et-Tannur. As the most significant collection of Nabataean material outside of Jordan, CAM is committed to the research, conservation, and display of these works for visitors and scholars alike. The ancient Mediterranean collection features notable examples of sculpture and ceramic vessels from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.
The department generates new scholarship through collection-based research, presented to our audiences through exhibitions, publications, and digital projects.
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East Asian Art Collection
The East Asian Department of Cincinnati Art Museum covers the arts of China, Japan, and Korea. The Museum acquired its first East Asian art works in 1881, making it one of the oldest museum collections of East Asian art in the United States.
The Chinese art collection spans nearly five thousand years, from the Neolithic to the present. Major strengths of the current holdings are ancient ritual bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Buddhist sculptures from the sixth to the nineteenth centuries, ceramics from the Neolithic period to the Qing dynasties, and paintings from the thirteenth to the twentieth century.
The Japanese art collection of nearly 5,000 works is the largest of the East Asian collection, which includes: ceramics, paintings, prints, metalwork, sculptures, objects in lacquer and ivory, and other forms. The collection is especially rich in the arts of the Edo period. The Korean art collection includes ceramics, metal and lacquer works, paintings, prints, and textiles.
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