New Galleries for Asian Buddhist Sculpture
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum
London
Opened April 2009
The suite of four day-lit galleries, situated alongside the V&A's John Madejski Garden, will display highlights from the museum's unrivalled collections of Asian Buddhist sculpture. Around 60 sculptures created by anonymous master craftsmen between 200 and 1850 will go on display in the refurbished galleries to explore the many ways in which the Buddha has been represented in the arts of Asia. The sculptures will be arranged in geographic groupings to demonstrate the diversity of artistic expression across India, Sri Lanka, the Himalayas, Burma, Thailand, China and Japan.
The new display will include the majestic gilt bronze Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara from 14th century Nepal, a monumental gilt bronze seated Buddha from Tibet, a protective standing Buddha from Ayutthaya in Thailand, and a 6th century marble torso of the Buddha from Tang China, as well as associated images of Bodhisattvas Guardians and Taras. The South Asian sculptures will be displayed alongside recently restored 19th century oil paintings which record the 6th century murals of the great rock-cut Buddhist shrines of Ajanta in central India. Contextual background will also be provided for Southeast Asian works through displays of life-sized copies of the world famous sculptural reliefs from the 8th century Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Java. The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery is part of the V&A's Future Plan to transform the museum through new galleries and beautiful redisplays of its collections. The gallery has been made possible by a generous lead donation from the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation and a grant of £300,000 from the DCMS/Wolfson Museum and Galleries Improvement Fund.
(See articles by John Clarke, John Guy, Lukas Nickel, Amy Heller, Cam Sharp Jones, Joseph Houseal in Orientations, May 2009 issue, pp.36-72)
The Printed Image in China: From the 8th to the 21st Centuries
The British Museum
London
Until 5 September 2010
This exhibition presents for the first time highlights from the entire collection of Chinese prints at the museum. The collection is one of the most comprehensive and finest in Europe. According to present knowledge, printing on paper was invented in China around 700 CE, making China the country with the longest history of printing in the world. About 120 prints will illuminate the history of printing from its inception to the present, and explore the role of the Chinese pictorial print in various cultural contexts. The show includes a wide variety of examples including Buddhist prints from the Silk Road, colourful images used in folk rituals and festivals, imperial engravings, dramatic anti-war images of the Modern Woodcut Movement and contemporary prints by artists that have gained recognition in the international art scene.
Divided into six sections and displayed in broadly chronological order, the prints are grouped under the headings ‘Printing and the Spread of Buddhism’, ‘Popularizing Elite Culture’, ‘Popular Prints’, ‘Printing at Court’ the ‘Modern Woodcut Movement’ and ‘Modern and Contemporary Prints’.
A set of wooden multi-colour printing blocks and a large imperial copperplate, each accompanied by a corresponding print, help to illustrate major printing techniques. Three spectacular loans from public and private collections complement the show. Among them the Diamond Sutra from 868 CE, the world’s earliest dated printed book. Furthermore, the loan of a Chinese court painting with a battle scene will be shown side by side with a copperplate engraving commissioned by the Chinese emperor in Paris. The painting served as the model for the engraving and has only recently been re-discovered. The painting and the print have not been exhibited before.
The exhibition is the first on the Chinese print of this scope and approach. It presents some of the finest and most famous prints ever produced in China, brings an outstanding collection to a wider audience and celebrates the artistic creativity of the Chinese printmaker.
Accompanied by a catalogue, edited by Clarissa von Spee with essays by Anne Farrer, Thomas G.Ebrey and Hiromitsu Kobayashi. (See articles in Orientations, May 2010.)
Infinite Strokes: Chinese Ink Painting - Mary Tang and Cathy Wu
Chinese Arts Centre
Manchester
Until 18 September 2010
An exhibition which pays tribute to two artists, Mary Tang and Cathy Wu, who have shown commitment to the Centre over the last 20 years. Both artists have worked as workshop leaders for the Centre but are also accomplished ink brush painting and calligraphy artists in their own right. The exhibition profiles their work and celebrates this unique traditional Chinese art form, which is technically demanding requiring great skill, concentration and years of training.
Muraqqa', Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library
Chester Beatty Library
Dublin, Ireland
Until October 2010
This magnificent exhibition of paintings from the land of the Taj Mahal has been on tour in the US for the past year. The Library holds one of the finest collections of Indian Mughal paintings in existence, and the exhibition is a rare opportunity to see many of the best of those works. It focuses on a group of six albums (muraqqa‘s) compiled in India between about 1600 and 1658 for the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Each album folio originally consisted of a painting on one side and a panel of calligraphy on the other, all set within beautifully illuminated borders. Many of the paintings are exquisitely rendered portraits of emperors, princes and courtiers - all dressed in the finest textiles and jewels - but there are also images of court life and of Sufis, saints and animals. Accompanied by a fully-illustrated, multiple award-winning catalogue.
Oh! I do like to be beside the Seaside
The Fan Museum
London
Until 21 October 2010
The exhibition traces the evolution of the concept of a holiday by the sea from fans of the Grand Tour in Naples and Venice (for a privileged few), to the advertising fans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which show how the development of the railways makes the seaside accessible to the masses.
A glance at some of the mythological fans takes us into the world of legend when sea monsters devoured (or are about to devour) naked ladies. Chinese ‘applied faces’ fans depict the reaches of the estuary of the Pearl River at Canton with its famous pagoda landmark, while others show this busy shipping port with its ‘hongs’ along the waterfront.
I am Your Simulacrum - Yi Zhou
20 Hoxton Square Projects
London
2 – 11 September 2010
The first solo exhibition of highly acclaimed multi-media artist, Yi Zhou which shows her pioneering work in her signature medium, 3-D animation technology. Her ambitious artistic expression blends mythology, philosophy, literature, imagination and technology, which are deeply rooted in both China and the West. The overbearing themes of her work are however, universal. Yi Zhou speaks of the Ephemeral yet all-consuming realities of love, life and death in a complex symbolic language. This language is pervaded by magical realism, a surrealist landscape and imaginary characters. Her work exists in multiple layers as real and unreal, ancient and present collide through a process of construction, deconstruction, recreation and transformation. The physical composition of her work is also multi faceted as she draws upon the varied disciplines of film, digital animation, photography, sculpture, drawing, painting and musical composition in her large multi-media installations.
The Museum of East Asian Art
Bath
4 September – 12 December 2010
Between 1300 and 1800, ceramic objects manufactured at southern Chinese kilns were some of the most universally desired products in the world. From humble Cambodian traders to the shahs of Iran and the princesses of Europe, the wide dissemination of Chinese ceramics testifies to cross-cultural encounters on a truly global scale. This exhibition traces the remarkable journeys of Chinese ceramics throughout the early modern world.
The Museum of East Asian Art
Bath
4 September – 12 December 2010
Taken in the years following the Vietnam war, the photographs explore the streets of Hanoi.
Lecture by Lars Tharp: “Pots, Power and Beauty: Porcelain & Desire in the Early Modern World”
The Museum of East Asian Art
Bath
5.30 pm on 6 September 2010
The talk has been organised as part of the Museum of East Asian Art and the University of Warwick’s collaborative exhibition `Chinese Ceramics and the Early Modern World’. Lars Tharp will investigate the rise and resilience of ‘China Mania’ in Europe, comparing European notions of material beauty and desire with those of China.
Touched: the International Exhibition for the 6th Liverpool Biennial International Festival of Contemporary Art
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool
18 September – 28 November 2010
This exhibition celebrates a decade of bringing new art to the UK through curatorial collaboration. Artists currently proposing new commissions include: Sachiko Abe, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Song Dong, Will Kwan, Do-Ho Suh, Tehching Hsieh, Carol Rama, and Ryan Trecartin will show existing work not seen before in this country.
Call for Papers - Ceramics on Show: Public and Private Displays
Victoria and Albert Museum
London
24 – 25 September 2010
Following the opening of the new ceramics galleries at the V&A, this conference will explore the ways in which ceramic objects have been displayed by private individuals, collectors, architects, retailers, galleries and museums. Taking an international view, the conference will bring together academics and curators, critics and artists to examine both contemporary and historic practice. Four specific themes will be addressed:
- the presentation and interpretation of ceramics by museums
- ceramics and display in retail and domestic environments
- ceramics and architecture
- issues of display in contemporary ceramic art
Proposals for 20-minute presentations on the above themes are invited. Further information on each of the themes is given below. Papers representing new research would be particularly welcome, as would those addressing international practice. Proposals for shorter 10-15-minute presentations by practising artists are also sought. These may address any of the conference themes.
Lecture by Louise Allison Cort and Leedom Lefferts: `Pots and how they are made in Mainland Southeast Asia’
Oriental Ceramic Society at the Society of Antiquaries of London
Piccadilly, London
5 October 2010 at 6:00pm
The potters at work today in villages in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and southern Yunnan province, make either earthenware or stoneware vessels for local and regional markets. These two basic types of ceramics still play important roles in local food preparation and storage and in religious rituals. The field research done by Cort and Lefferts among these communities has looked at how methods of pottery production cut across modern political borders to reveal more fundamental links among language and cultural groups and to hint at patterns of migration and interaction. They will introduce some of the memorable potters we have met and share video
clips and images of how pots are made.
The Tiger in Asian Art: Symbol of Power and Protection
Asia House
London
5 November 2010 – 12 February 2011
An exhibition which is part of this global drive to save the highly endangered tiger species.The treasures assembled date from the 1st century BCE to the modern and contemporary periods with exhibits originating from China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma and the Mongolian steppes. Focusing on the cultural and spiritual significance of the tiger to these diverse cultures, the exhibition highlights the important role this creature has played, and continues to play, in the human psyche. The tiger is important as a symbol of power and protection throughout Asia. The exhibition reveals the way in which the tiger is feared, revered and used as a vital and enduring symbol. The tiger’s significance is explored in five themes: as a protector, a spiritual power, a material power, a hunted animal and a species in decline.
Symposium on “New Research on Buddhist Sculpture”
Victoria & Albert Museum
London
8 – 9 November 2010
This two day symposium will feature new research by 15 leading scholars in the field. Topics covered will range across many major Asian traditions and cover the 1st century CE to the 15th century in date. The first day concentrates on South Asia and the Himalayas and features papers on early image making in India, Gandharan sculptural schools and Southern Buddhism in India and its relationship to Sri Lanka. Other lectures will cover related aspects of the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, including those of Western Tibet.
The second day is devoted to South East and East Asia with papers on new insights into the reliefs at Borobodur in Java and the early introduction of Buddhist images to China from India via the Yangzi valley. Other papers will focus on newly discovered Tang sculptures, images from the caves at Tianlongshan, mandalas in China and Japan and a previously unknown large Yongle image and its parallels.
Tickets: The symposium is free but RSVP is essential as places are limited. RSVP to: asiaevents@vam.ac.uk.
8 November: South Asia and the Himalayas
9:00 Registration
9:30-10:15 Dr Naman Ahuja (JNU New Delhi) - Keynote address
10:20-11:00 Prof. Juhyung Rhi (Seoul) - Does Iconography Really Matter? Iconographic Specification of Buddha Images in Pre-Esoteric Buddhist Art
11:15 – 12:00 Dr Naman Ahuja - Early Representations of the Buddha in the Chandraketugarh ivories and terracottas
12:00-12:45 Michael Willis (British Museum) - Avalokitesvara of the Six Syllables: Sculpture and Sadhanas
2:00-2:45 Dr A. Banerji (Arch. Survey of India) - Vajrapani and his Vajra in Indian Art, 1st to 12th centuries
2:45-3:30 Prof. K. Shinohara (Yale University) - The origins of tantric image worship in Post Gupta India
3:45-4:30 John Guy (Met Museum) - Southern Buddhism: Tracing Later Buddhist art in South India
4:30-5:15 Prof. D.K.Salter (Vienna University) - The Tibetans in the west: Regional Artistic traditions, 8th to 10th centuries
5:15-6:00 Dr Amy Heller - The Tibetan Sculpture of the Guge-Purang kingdom in the 11th century
9 November: South East and East Asia
10.30-11.00 Professor Ruan Rongchun (Shanghai University) - The early (3rd century CE) introduction of Buddhism from India via the Yangtsi Valley to China and its related images
11.15-12.00 J.Gifford (Miami University) - Buddhist Visual Culture and the Gandavyûha relief panels of Borobudur
12.00-12.45 Katherine Tsiang (Chicago University) - Contextualising a group of bodhisattvas from the caves at Tianlongshan
2.00-2.45 Lukas Nickel (SOAS) - Buddhist Sculpture of the Southern Dynasties
2.45-3.30 Dr Stan Abe (Duke University) - Copies and forgeries in Chinese Sculpture
3.45-4.30 Dr Cynthia Bogel (Washington University) - The Mandala concept in China and Japan
4.30-5.15 Dr John Clarke (V&A) - A large, newly discovered 15th century bronze image of the Mahasiddha Virupa and its parallels
5.15-6.15 Panel discussion on day’s papers and summing up
Luisa Mengoni and Rose Kerr: `Chinese Export Ceramics in the Victoria & Albert Museum’
Oriental Ceramic Society at the Society of Antiquaries of London
Piccadilly, London
9 November 2010 at 6:00pm
Heroes and Kings of the Shahnama
Chester Beatty Library
Dublin, Ireland
November 2010 - April 2011
This exhibition celebrates the 1000th anniversary of the poet Firdawsi’s completion of the Shahnama in 1010. This Iranian national epic relates the glorious and often gory feats of the heroes and kings of pre-Islamic Iran. Derived from the oral history of Iran and compiled in written form in the 11th century by the poet Firdawsi, the tales of the Shahnama have been popular both within and beyond the borders of Iran for more than a millennium. While many of its tales are steeped in legend and tell of the killing of dragons and divs, others derive from recorded history, such as the stories of Alexander the Great, known to Persians as Iskandar. The Library holds twenty-five complete and fragmentary copies produced in both Iran and India between the 14th and 19th centuries, and folios from each of these will be on display. Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Lecture by Rosemary Scott: `Porcelains from the Reign of Perpetual Happiness’
Oriental Ceramic Society at the Society of Antiquaries of London
Piccadilly, London
7 December 2010 at 6:00pm |
