Newly on View: Chinese ink paintings

This is the first in an ongoing series in which our curators introduce artworks that have recently gone on display.

The strength of the Chinese painting collection in the Asian Art Museum lies in modern and contemporary ink painting. To complement the special contemporary exhibition Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past (May 18–October 14), I have selected from the collection representative ink paintings ranging in date from 1965 to 2011.

Lui Shou-kwan, Chan painting, 1974, ink and color on paper.

The group of ink paintings on view in the Chinese painting gallery represents several major trends and artists, including:

• Modern Chinese ink painting movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong from the mid-1950s to the 1970s;
• 1980s new ink painting;
• 1990s experimental ink painting in China; and
• Works by overseas Chinese ink painters in the last several decades.

Two monumental paintings are on view for the first time: Chan (1974) by Lui Shou-kwan of Hong Kong, and Ended Season by local painter Zheng Chongbin, which is the first contemporary Chinese art work commissioned by the Asian Art Museum (on display beginning mid-March).

The paintings are on view in the Chinese painting gallery on the second floor.

Why do we always have new art on display?

There’s a scientific reason: organic materials such as silks and natural dyes are extremely vulnerable to fading and damage. To protect these light-sensitive artworks, we display them under low lighting only, for a 6-month period every 5 years.

There’s also another reason: we have so many treasures in storage that sometimes it’s just fun to put them on display for our visitors. So please enjoy!

Curator Joseph Chang is the Senior Research Fellow, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in the museum’s Research Institute.

Phantoms of Asia: Behind the Scenes

While Maharaja is still going strong in our galleries, behind the scenes we’re gearing up for our next major exhibition, Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past. I spoke to assistant curator of contemporary art Allison Harding about why preparing for this show is different.

What’s special about the way this show is being presented?

The serious business of displaying art: curators Mami Kataoka and Allison Harding with head of preparations Kelly Bennett.

To deepen visitors’ experience of contemporary art, we are incorporating traditional objects into the exhibition. This approach might seem counter-intuitive but we’ve found that blending old and new art offers more entry points for the viewer, and inspires new insights about both. For me, this exhibition shows that over thousands of years art really has not changed at its core. We make things to explore and to communicate ideas, and to access realms beyond everyday life. When artisans during China’s Han dynasty handcrafted incense burners in the shape of sacred mountains, for example, they were exploring some of the same questions as today’s artists who make work about the environment: how can we respect and protect the landscape? How does it respond to our actions?

When you visit Phantoms of Asia, you’ll find contemporary objects in many collection galleries. I look forward to hearing the connections that these old and new objects spark for you.

Adrian Wong planning his upcoming installation during a recent visit to the museum.

Which works are you the most excited about seeing installed?

I am most excited about site-specific installations by Adrian Wong, Sun K. Kwak, and Heman Chong. These works will be created by the artists just before the exhibition opening. We won’t see them until we can experience them in the space. I am eager to see how visitors engage with these installations as I expect that people will have unique, personal experiences of each work.

 Which works will be the most challenging to display?

For a museum of mostly traditional art, a project like Phantoms of Asia pushes many boundaries of display. Our team has taken on this challenge with creativity and an open mind. We will have live trees in our galleries, we will have art created by visitors, we will show large installations and videos, and we are building temporary walls in our collection galleries.

This show is a huge amount of work – are you going to treat yourself when it’s done?

First I will spend time enjoying the galleries. Seeing the work of 31 contemporary artists in our museum will be the biggest treat! Then I will fulfill an outstanding promise to visit barns and ride tractors in Vermont with my son.

The Art of Passion

A story of steamy passion turns out to be behind an Indian painting in the museum’s collection.

Painting from India's Mewar kingdom, approx. 1720, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Hopper Fitch.

The subject of the painting, which came to the museum in 1984, had been identified in very general terms before. We knew that it showed the Hindu deity Krishna and his beloved Radha parted and longing for each other.

But the painting’s inscription had never been read. Recently Joan Cummins, a specialist in Indian painting at the Brooklyn Museum, was here to give a lecture. During her preparations she read the inscription and found its source:

What her companion said to him:
Hearing her moan
with the burning pain
of parting
I emptied a whole bottle
of rosewater on her,
but the flames of his separation
vaporized it in mid-air
and not a drop
fell on her!

(From Bihari: The Satasai. Translated from the Hindi and with an introduction by Krishna P. Bahadur. London: Penguin Books, 1992.)

In the upper left a companion of Radha’s, who serves as an intermediary between Radha and Krishna, describes to Krishna Radha’s intense longing for him. The situation the companion describes is shown at the lower left: a bottle of rosewater is poured on Radha to cool “the burning pain of parting” to no avail.

If you want to take steamy passion beyond the art, join us for a multi-sensorial MATCHA on February 16. If you’d rather stick to the art, Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts and Sanjay Patel’s Deities, Demons and Dudes with ‘Staches offer different perspectives on Indian culture and spirituality until April 2012.

See it now: Japanese Armor Rotation

This weekend is your last chance to see our Japanese armor for a while. But don’t despair – next week there will be a new one to enjoy. If you want to catch both, you’ll have to drop in twice.

XRay of a pre-Meiji set of samurai armor.

So why are we taking this armor off view? Well, armor may look tough, but some of its components are surprisingly fragile. While steel, leather, and wood are used to create the protective plating, these are laced together with leather or silk cord. After several centuries, these materials may not be strong enough to hold the weight of the armor for extended periods. Materials can also be damaged by prolonged exposure to light, meaning that the armor needs to be rested periodically.

Our conservation center has written an article on how we look after our Japanese armor, and there are more images on Flickr.

Our conservation team has also been working to prepare the new set of armor, which is on loan from a private collection. In these pictures you can see Katherine Holbrow, our head of conservation, using a spectrometer to determine what metals are present in the samurai helmet.

Samurai helmet undergoing spectrometry. Helmet from Private Collection.

Head of conservation Katherine Holbrow adjusting the equipment.

We rotate many of the pieces in this collection, not just armor. Over the next few months we will be doing several gallery rotations, many in preparation for Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past. Keep an eye on the blog to hear about what’s coming down and what we’re replacing it with. We’ll try to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

With the close of Poetry in Clay on January 8, the Asian Art Museum’s Korean galleries have once again become a work in progress. A collection of old friends — ceramic and metal works from the museum’s collection — are on their way back.

The reinstalled gallery will re-open this weekend, so be sure to take a moment to revisit your favorite Korean works.

But in addition to works from the collection, we have another treat on view. When the museum opened at Civic Center back in 2003, the Korean artist Cho Duk-Hyun excavated a pack of dogs on museum grounds as part of the Eureka project. Ten of these dogs were later given to the museum. As part of the Korean gallery reinstallation, we’ve let these dogs out of their storage crate for a brief romp. You can check the pups out and watch a video documenting their unearthing starting January 28.

Museum photographer Kaz Tsuruta photographs each dog on its way to the gallery.

Bonus Quiz: There are nine dogs in the gallery but ten in the pack that was given to the museum. Can you guess where doggy number ten is? Put your answer in the comments below.

Curator of Korean Art Hyonjeong Kim Han, registrar Cathy Mano, and exhibition manager Kelly Bennett wrangle Cho Duk-Hyun's dogs into the Korean gallery alcove.

Chinese Artist Chang Dai-chien: Bigger than Picasso?

Chinese artist Chang Dai-chien (also known as Zhang Daqian) may not have the kind of name recognition that Pablo Picasso enjoys, but in 2011 he ousted the Spaniard as the biggest auction earner in recent years. Chang’s works made $506.7 million in auction sales last year, according to Artprice, and two other Chinese artists were in the top five earners.

Here at the museum, we were excited to see Chang’s name in the news because one of his paintings, Clouded Mountain, will soon go on view in our China gallery.

As a preeminent painter of twentieth-century China, Chang integrated modern sensibilities into traditional Chinese painting. In 1956 he made his first pan-European tour, at which time his eyesight began to deteriorate. During this time, he unexpectedly developed his most innovative painting technique of splashed ink and color. Clouded Mountains exemplifies the splashed ink technique. The poem, inscribed by Chang, reads:

I was in the mood to paint in the middle of night
My wife and son were awakened from their dreams
Ink overturned and running out of control
Emerging from the summer clouds a celestial mountain

Chang’s painting will go on view on January 24.

Building the Belfry

On Saturday, we welcomed the new year with the 26th annual Japanese bell ringing ceremony. In this annual tradition visitors, led by a Buddhist priest, mark New Year by ringing a 2100-lb., sixteenth-century Japanese bronze bell originally from a temple in Tajima Province in Japan. Now part of the museum’s collection, the bell will be struck 108 times with a large custom-hewn log. According to custom in several Buddhist cultures, this symbolically welcomes the New Year and curbs the 108 mortal desires (bonno) which, according to Buddhist belief, torment humankind.

This video shows our preparations team building the belfry and hanging the bell ready for is ceremonial duties.

The Year of the Dragons

One of the cool things about working at the Asian Art Museum is that I get to meet artists from all over the world who are creating some fascinating works, big and small.

A few days ago, I received a holiday card from an AsiaAlive alumnus, Japanese bamboo artist Tanaka Kyokusho. He also sent me a photo of his latest work, a fifty-foot-long dragon made entirely from bamboo.

Tanaka's bamboo dragon display in Tokyo.

Another Japanese artist, Paris-based artist Natsusaka Shinichiro, recently sent us the new year’s netsuke he created specially for the museum. This is his third year designing netsukes for our education programs; he previously created netsukes for the year of the tiger and the year of the rabbit.

Natsusaka's dragon netsuke is about an inch tall.

Unlike Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities, Japanese people celebrate the new year on January 1. This change from the lunar calendar was made during the Meiji Restoration Period, in 1873. Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese new year starts on January 23, 2012 (it changes every year according to the lunar calendar), so you will have three extra weeks to make new year’s resolutions.

Next Saturday, December 31, museum visitors can ring the new year in with our annual Japanese bell ringing ceremony, make their own netsukes at our family art activity, and welcome the Year of the Dragon in style.

Christ as the Good Shepherd

The stories of how pieces come into our collection are always interesting, and since it’s the holiday season we wanted to share a story about an ivory sculpture of Christ as the Good Shepherd.

This sculpture is more than a lovely artwork; it is a window into history. It was made some time between 1650 and 1700 in Goa. A number of such statuettes were made during the Portuguese colonial period, when many local people converted to Catholicism, no doubt for a variety of reasons. In other parts of southern India Christianity had had a long history–back, it is said, to the time of the apostle Thomas, who traveled to India in the first century.

The statuette was probably carved by an Indian sculptor trained in Portuguese-related artistic traditions. Christ is shown as a boy tending sheep; in a cave below a woman reclines, reading. She is identified by some as Mary Magdalene, but others believe that she is St Catherine of Alexandria. St Catherine is associated with Goa because it was on her feast day in 1510 that the Portuguese took possession of the city.

Like any other work of art, this little statue is inextricably linked to the events that led to its creation. Some would say it is tainted by colonialism; others that it is important precisely because of its links to events that reach well beyond art, informed by a clash of cultures and an imperialist view of the world that has not entirely disappeared. And of course, Christianity in Goa is not a thing of the past – about 20% of Goans will celebrate Christmas this year.

We acquired this piece at the Arts of Pacific Asia show in February this year through the generosity of Paul and Kathy Bissinger. The Asian Art Museum has a tradition at the show – if one of the curators finds something wonderful, they approach supporters on the spot, hoping to generate enthusiasm for the piece. If we’re lucky, as we were this year, we are able to augment the collection with an important find. Mr. and Mrs. Bissinger write:

We were so pleased that we were able to help the Asian Art Museum fill a gap in its South Asia Collection. Dr. Forrest McGill, whose expert eagle eye first spotted the piece at last year’s APA Gala Opening, was enthralled by its beauty, fine execution and perfect condition. We were easily persuaded to acquire it for the Museum.

We plan to put the newly acquired statuette on display in mid 2012, so you can come in to see it for yourself.

Are there pieces of art that make you reflect on their history? We’d love to hear about them in the comments.

A Holiday Message from Director Jay Xu

We have much to be thankful for this past year. We began 2011 showcasing two superb exhibitions—Beyond Golden Clouds: Five Centuries of Japanese Screens, followed by the critically acclaimed Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance.

Museum Director Jay Xu and Associate Head of Conservation Mark Fenn examine the Asian Art Museum's bronze rhinoceros.

In the fall we unveiled our new brand, promising to awaken the past and inspire the next for visitors. And we opened three wonderfully diverse exhibitions fulfilling that promise: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Korea, Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts, and Deities, Demons, and Dudes with ‘Stashes: Indian Avatars by Sanjay Patel. These exhibitions show traditional and contemporary artworks side by side – literally in the case of Buncheong ceramics, and thematically with Sanjay’s show giving us a contemporary interpretation of themes also explored in Maharaja.

In addition to presenting compelling art, we offer interactive programs for the family, scholarly lectures and presentations, films, art activities, publications, and performances that you cannot find anywhere else in the Bay Area. We also provide unique educational programs to thousands of school children, and we continue to protect and conserve the artworks in our collection for future generations to discover.

Without the generosity of our donors and supporters, none of this would be possible. So, this season, consider making an end of year donation to the Asian Art Museum. Your gift makes a big difference to us. Along with knowing that your contribution allows thousands of others to enjoy the museum’s offerings, you can also enjoy the benefits of a tax deduction or match your gift with your employer’s matching gift program to increase your support.

I wish you a healthy and happy holiday season and thank you for all your continued interest and support.

Warm regards,
Jay Xu,
Museum Director