MAR 2015

VOLUME 46 - NUMBER 2

This year The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates the 100th anniversary of its Department of Asian Art. In this special issue, our authors—all curators from the department—look back over a century of collecting Asian art, focusing on the people who, through their generosity, passion and insight, have helped to shape the museum’s Asian collection.

The iconic painting illustrated on our cover, Han Gan’s Night-Shining White—among the best-known horse paintings in Chinese art, depicting a favourite charger of Emperor Xuanzong—is emblematic of the strength and spirit of the collection, while the essays each chart a course through key works, beginning with Maxwell K. Hearn’s introduction to the Chinese galleries.

We would like to thank Judith Smith for her work behind the scenes in the coordination of this issue. Rounding up the issue, Jessica Rawson reviews a publication on the Woolf Collection of Chinese jades, and Elizabeth Knight pays tribute to Susan Chen Hardy.

FEATURES
Maxwell K. Hearn. Evolving Visions of Asia: Chinese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Monika Bincsik. Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met
John T. Carpenter. Sublime Gifts to the Met From Sylvan Barnet and William Burto
John Guy. The Essential Form: Collecting South and Southeast Asian Sculpture at the Met
Zhixin Jason Sun. Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Joseph Scheier-Dolberg. Turning the Page: The Art of the Chinese Album
Kurt Behrendt. Collecting Rajput, Pahari and Himalayan Painting at the Met
Soyoung Lee. Collecting Korea at the Met
Denise Patry Leidy. Extraordinary Things: The Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for Chinese Decorative Arts
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Jessica Rawson. Book Review: The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade
Japanese Art Dealers Association
Asia Week New York 2015
Asia Art Fair New York 2015
TEFAF 2015
NEWS
Elizabeth Knight. Susan Chen Hardy (1940–2014)