Installation view, Role of Animals and Literary Themes in Asian Art
Role of Animals and Literary Themes in Asian Art
January 29 – May 1, 2025
Due to their sensitivity to light, Asian paintings and textiles in the permanent collection rotate every six months. The current rotation, on view until May 1, 2025, explores the role of animals in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art, with a focus on the 12 animals of the zodiac. As symbols of steadfastness, power, and beauty, horses feature prominently in the display. They appear in an 18th- or 19th-century Japanese screen brushed by a member of the Kano school—the official artists of the Tokugawa shogunate—while a lone horse is the subject of a hanging scroll by the famed 20th-century Chinese painter Xu Beihong. These works are juxtaposed with a rare Korean vessel in the shape of a horse and rider, dating from the 7th or 8th century. Another example of ceramic sculpture, this one from 8th-century China, takes the form of a woman playing polo.
Installation view, Role of Animals and Literary Themes in Asian Art
Elegant paintings from India and Iran illustrate some of the most influential literary themes in West and South Asian culture. Among these are scenes from the life of the Hindu god Krishna as recounted in the epic Bhagavata Purana (Tale of the Lord), as well as the romantic tales of King Bahram Gur from the Haft Peykar (Seven Portraits) by the great 13th-century Iranian poet Rumi. Also included in this section of the galleries are metalwork, ceramic, and glass pieces, alongside a 17th-century Iranian tapestry depicting a hunting scene.
To browse the works on view, click here.
Special Publication Promotion
To celebrate this season’s Asia Week, we are offering a special promotion on our recently released title Celadon on the Seas: Chinese Ceramics from the 9th to the 14th Century. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, this publication explores the development of the southern Chinese ceramic industry from the ninth to the fourteenth century. Drawing on our Collection, it examines the artistic, historical, and technical aspects of dozens of ceramic objects, offering an overview of the industry and its unique relationship to maritime trade.
To learn more and purchase your copy, click here.
Indian and Iranian Paintings: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Installation view, Asian Art Galleries
The Asian art collection of nearly 8,000 works—from East Asia, South Asia, continental Southeast Asia, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey—spans the Neolithic period to the 21st century.
The South Asian and Islamic collections were founded by the gifts of Mrs. Moore and are represented by an excellent group of textiles, ceramics, miniature paintings, and manuscript pages. Gifts of over 80 Persian and Indian miniature paintings, and others of Indian sculpture, have greatly augmented the holdings of Iranian and Indian art.
The Gallery’s Chinese and Japanese collections were built initially through the gifts and bequest of Mrs. William H. Moore between 1937 and 1960. The greatest strengths of the Chinese holdings are ceramics and paintings, including a group of vessels from the Changsha region of Hunan Province, from around 500 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E., assembled for the most part by John Hadley Cox, B.A. 1935. Chinese paintings range from the Tang dynasty (618–907 C.E.) through the 20th century, with particular strengths in the 17th century and in the modern and contemporary period.
The Japanese collection has important concentrations in the arts of the Edo period (1615–1868). Approximately 1,200 prints, the majority of which are ukiyo-e prints of the 18th and 19th centuries, demonstrate the breadth of this medium, and recent additions have included a group of 20th-century prints. Several important screens and hanging scrolls of the 14th through 18th century highlight the department’s holdings of Japanese painting and calligraphy, while Japanese textiles are represented by fragments from the Shōsōin repository in Nara, Noh robes, kimonos, and a collection of Buddhist priests’ robes. Japanese ceramics, a growing area of the collection, span from the Neolithic period to the presend day, with important recent additions of contemporary ceramic sculpture.
To view highlights in the collection, watch videos and view publications, click here.
