Rear view of the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA)

The Asian has had loans from our permanent collection on view at the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) since February 1992. At that time SAMA, which opened their doors in 1981 in the remodeled historic Lone Star Brewery complex, had a collection of Asian Art which they supplemented by borrowing additional pieces for display.

In May 2005 SAMA opened the new Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing, a 15,000 square foot suite of galleries.  Over the years,  SAMA has continued to build their Asian art collection which has have grown to include more than 1,500 works from China, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam.  The collection spans nearly 6,000 years of history.

The Hindu deity Parvati, approx. 1200-1400. Southern India. Stone. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60S50+

Most of the loans from the Asian Art Museum were returned to San Francisco for the opening of the new Asian in 2003, but there are still five sculptures left on display in the SAMA permanent galleries. One of the sculptures is Chinese and the rest are South Asian and Southeast Asian.

My fellow registrars at SAMA

We recently revised the inspection trip to occur biennially. I enjoy visiting my colleagues at SAM and it is always interesting to see how the museum has evolved over the years.  This trip I was particularly pleased to discover the famous Riverwalk has been extended all the way to the museum.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

Asian Art in San Antonio

It’s true that the hero of Avatar, like the Hindu deity Vishnu, has blue skin and rides a mighty sun bird, but hey, we’re in the realm of myth, and X doesn’t have to be derived from Y.

Here’s a painting from the museum’s collection showing a very blue Vishnu (and his consort) riding through the sky on the great bird Garuda. It’s from the north Indian state of Rajasthan, and dates from around 1760.

If you see the movie and notice other connections with Hindu lore, write in and tell us, OK?

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

Avatar at the Asian, part II

The word “avatar” comes from Sanskrit avatara, literally meaning “descent.” It referred, originally, to the incarnations of the great deity Vishnu. When humankind was threatened with disorder and violence Vishnu would take on an appropriate form and descend to earth to set things right.

There are usually thought to be ten incarnations, and they include animal or part-animal forms such as The Tortoise and The Man-Lion, and human forms such as The Dwarf, Rama, and Krishna.

You can see the avatars of Vishnu in sculptures in the Asian Art Museum. Along the upper border of a slab bearing an elaborately carved image of Vishnu are tiny representations of all ten standard avatars. (This sculpture is displayed in Gallery 2.)

The left upper slab:

Even closer — can you spot the Fish and Tortoise?

There are other sculptures showing individual avatars, such as The Boar (Gallery 3):

The Man-Lion (Gallery 2):

Rama (Gallery 4):

and Krishna (Gallery 4):

Also, some of the avatars of Vishnu have a female equivalent. Examples of these, too, can be seen in the museum, such as two female equivalents of The Boar (the first is in Gallery 2, the second in Gallery 4):

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

Avatar at the Asian

Skull with two snakes coiled around it. Japan, 1800-1900. Netsuke; ivory. The Avery Brundage Collection, B70Y199.

Happy Halloween, or Samhain, or Ancestor Night, or Day of the Dead, or whatever you want to call this day, which many cultures consider the true beginning of winter (it is the cross-quarter day between the equinox and the solstice — what in the U.S. we call the beginning of winter, December 21 or 22, is actually midwinter by this reckoning).

As everyone knows, on this day ghosts and demons come among us. The Asian’s collection contains a lot of images that are appropriate to Halloween, such as the Japanese netsuke shown above (not all are on view in the museum now, or at any given time).

Also from Japan is this dancing skeleton.

Dancing skeleton (detail). 1850-1950. Japan. Hanging scroll; ink on paper. R1999.54.17.

We have some fine witches, such as this one from Indonesia.

The witch Rangda (detail), approx. 1800-1900. Indonesia; Bali. Painted wood. Gift of Thomas Murray in memory of his father Eugene T. Murray, 2000.37.

And of course we host a host of wrathful deities, such as the terrifying Penden Lhamo, the special protector of the Dalai Lamas. In this image she holds a staff and a blood-filled skull bowl as she rides a mule through a sea of blood that represents samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death.

The Buddhist protector deity Penden Lhamo (detail), approx. 1700-1800. Tibet. Thangka; colors on wood. The Avery Brundage Collection, B62D32.

Do you have a favorite scary image from the Asian’s collection? If so, please weigh in here.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

This museum is frightening!

Given this notable collection, we were recently thrilled to be offered a full set of Javanese shadow puppets that have been tucked away in their original traveling trunk since before World War II. Now we normally don’t showcase new gifts until they have completed our lengthy and deliberate acquisitions process (a topic for another post some day), but because it will be a long time before we finish processing this gift and because they are just that cool, I thought a sneak peek might be in order.

This vast layer of shadow puppets is only the second of seven layers tightly packed into this trunk.

Why such a long time until we debut this set? For one, it is a really full trunk. There are seven layers of puppets, with sizes ranging from tiny daggers for the characters to hold, to giant horses for them to ride. The puppets can be packed tightly because they are flat. Each one is crafted of carefully cut leather decorated with paint and gold and supported by a thin handle of polished horn. In addition to the puppets, the trunk contains backdrop screens, noise-makers, and other performance accessories.

Chief Curator Forrest McGill admires an elephant puppet from the set.

Readying this set for the museum collection will involve researching each puppet individually in order to identify the character and the story that they belong to, to determine when and how each puppet was made, and to to ascertain the physical condition of each puppet. Because the trunk contains several hundred puppets, this process will be ongoing for many months and possibly years.

Lots and lots of puppets!

Once this inventory is complete, the registrars and conservators will design a storage strategy for the long-term preservation of the puppets (unfortunately, we will not be able to store them in their trunk forever), and begin planning for any immediate conservation treatments that they may require.

Senior Registrar Sharon Steckline, Head of Conservation Katie Holbrow, and Forrest McGill examine the backdrop and other accessories that accompanied the puppet set.

With all this to be done, it will be some time before this collection makes it to our galleries. But in the meantime, you can still get your puppet fix in a couple of places. Just this week we rotated the Indonesian rod puppets in the Southeast Asia gallery—the new selection focuses on characters from The Mahabharata (The Great Chronicles of the Bharata Dynasty). Our forthcoming fall exhibition Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma includes examples of both Thai shadow puppets and Burmese marionettes, and will be accompanied by educational puppet activities presented by some very special guests. And if you’re curious about what other puppet acquisitions may be brewing here at the museum, here’s a YouTube hint to enjoy.

Puppets from the collection (left to right): A princess or a court lady, perhaps 1900-1925, Burma, Gift of Dr. Vincent Fausone, Jr., F2009.5 (Emerald Cities); Shadow puppet of the demon king Ravana riding a chariot into battle, approx. 1850-1900, Thailand, Gift from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Southeast Asian Art Collection, 2006.27.115.2 (Emerald Cities ); Ghatotkacha (Gatotkaca), son of Bhima, approx. 1960, West Java, From The Mimi and John Herbert Collection, F2000.86.161 (on view in Gallery 11)

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

The Museum of Asian Puppetry

As mentioned in a previous post, we routinely remove light-sensitive works from our galleries and replace them with new works from storage. In this case, the contemporary fiber arts that have livened up our Korean gallery for the past year have been replaced by a selection of photographs from the vast archives of the National Museum of Korea.

The Hall of Diligent Rule at the Palace of Great Felicity, approx. 1909-1945; printed 2009, National Museum of Korea

These photographs document five palace complexes in the Joseon capital city of Hanyang (modern Seoul) and were taken between 1909 and 1949 as part of a survey of the customs, architecture, and landscape of Korea. During the early twentieth century many of these palaces were destroyed or dismantled, leaving us only with these evocative images.

The anonymous photographers who composed these images were using the technology of the time, dry plate photography. Developed at the end of the 19th century, the dry plate process relies on a glass plate coated with a photosensitive gelatin layer. Unlike the earlier wet plate process—in which dripping plates had to be rapidly transported between preparation, camera, and an on-site developing lab—dry plates could be prepared in advance and developed at another location. Because of their large size, these plates could also record incredible amounts of detail.

Animal guardian of the Bridge of Enduring Passage at the Palace of Great Felicity, approx. 1909-1945; printed 2009, National Museum of Korea

The National Museum of Korea houses some 38,000 of these glass plate negatives. Although the plates show signs of use, no known vintage photographic prints from them existed. As a gift to the Asian Art Museum, the National Museum prepared thirty new contact prints (prints made by laying the glass plate directly against the photographic paper) using these 70 – 100 year old glass plate negatives. Ten of the prints will be displayed in the current gallery rotation, with another group of ten scheduled to go on view in March 2010.

The Heavenly Turtle Gate at the Palace of Great Felicity, 1929; printed 2009, National Museum of Korea

If this display intrigues you, be sure to continue into the Tateuchi gallery (directly adjacent to the Korean galleries) to view the ongoing exhibition Photographic Memories, featuring vintage photographs from South Asia, China, and Japan. We will be rotating this exhibition as well at the end of the Summer, introducing fresh images and themes for our visitors. If that’s not enough, enjoy browsing through our on-line collection of photographs from colonial India, available through our collections browser.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

Korean Palaces of the Joseon Dynasty

"Women Can Do Everything Now" by Shalinee Kumari. Acrylic and ink on handmade paper. Image courtesy of Frey Norris Gallery.

These are the last weeks of two opportunities to view contemporary Indian paintings by artists of the Mithila region of India at the Asian Art Museum and Frey Norris Gallery.

Closing on July 19 Frey Norris Gallery is showing the American debut of Shalinee Kumari, a contemporary Indian woman artist painting in the style commonly referred to as “Mithila” or “Madhubani” painting. Mithila is a region in Bihar, a state in NE India. Madhubani is the name of a town in this region.

Traditionally (and still today), these graphically engaging paintings were done by women as mural art decorating the walls of their homes, often marking an important celebrations, a wedding or the birth of a child, for example, or religious themes. The current gallery show, however, shows the transformation of this painting style into a contemporary form of expression on paper and canvas that is now sold to art collectors. While stylistically linked to traditional forms, some Mithila artists are exploring a wider range of issues. According to the gallery’s web announcement:

Shalinee Kumari is arguably the most progressive of these artists, producing highly narrative, vibrantly colored critical works on hand-made paper illustrating currently pressing issues such as the evils of dowry, bride burning, capitalism, inflation, corporate control of the media, global warming, terrorism, and the sexual exploitation of women. But she also does paintings on women’s cricket, gender equality, and women’s liberation.

The Asian Art Museum also has a collection of Mithila paintings some of which are currently on view on the 3rd floor. This installation includes a male painter in this genre, who is among those encouraged by the economic success of the women artists to enter this once purely local, folk art tradition. The museum installation of Mithila paintings closes after Sunday, July 26 and conservation policy states that these light sensitive works go into dark storage to rest for five years so that they may retain their brilliant colors for generations to come. Come see ‘em while you can!

Holy man in a forest (the Hindu deity Shiva as Lord of the Animals), 1981 By Jogmaya Devi (Indian). Mithila, Bihar state. Colors on paper. Asian Art Museum, 1999.39.39.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

Mithila Women painters of India–last weeks

Every year is a little different when it comes to acquisitions. Factors such as current art trends, the economic environment, and serendipity all interact with curatorial priorities and exhibition plans. But one thing I’ve noticed this year is an increase in the number of gifts of work by living artists. With this in mind, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite such gifts from the past year.

The White Wild Kerria Rose, 2004 from the series "Ceramic Representations From Natural History", By Sugiura Yasuyoshi (Japanese, born 1949), Stoneware with white, dark brown, and gold glazes; cloth texturing and carving, Gift of Paul and Kathleen Bissinger, F2009.15

Ceramic artist Sugiura Yasuyoshi crafts larger-than-life botanical specimens in clay. This sculpture of a wild Japanese rose pairs the weight of clay with the great delicacy of its subject.

Yogini, 2007, by Arpana Caur (Indian, born 1954), oil on canvas, Gift of Arpana Caur, F2008.40

We’ve exhibited a number of works by Arpana Caur, but until now have not had a representative work in our own collection. A study in stillness, Yogini is inspired by a figure depicted in the “Arjuna’s Penance” bas-reliefs of Southern India.

Autumn frost, 2008, By Pan Gongkai (Chinese, born 1948), ink on paper, Gift of Pan Gongkai, 2009.2

The prolific ink painter Pan Gongkai composes lyrical works featuring abstract natural elements. A set of four lotus paintings by the artist was a big hit in our last Chinese painting rotation, so I’m glad that we have another work to add to the mix.

Heart of Grass, 2006 by Kim Sun Wuk (Korean, born 1929), Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, Gift of Kim Sun Wuk, F2008.59.3

In this contemporary calligraphy, Kim Sun Wuk mixes calligraphy and print-making techniques to elongate the title characters into near abstraction. Heart of Grass, along with three other recently works by the artist, will feature in this summer’s Korean gallery rotation.

Look for these acquisitions, and more wonderful new works, in future rotations.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

In with the new

“Rotation” has a pretty specific meaning here at the Asian Art Museum. It refers to the process of periodically removing all light-sensitive works from the permanent galleries and replacing them with fresh works from storage. Rotations occur approximately every 8 months and can involve switching up to 10% of the works currently on view. This particular rotation season is extra busy as we will also be rotating our two current exhibitions, Photographic Memories and Lords of the Samurai, for a total rotation of around 280 objects.

Framed prints wait to go on view in the upcoming Chinese gallery rotation

Why rotate? One reason is that as museum professionals, we have a responsibility to preserve these precious objects for future generations. Light is the enemy of many types of art. Objects made of organic materials such as paper or natural fibers, or colored using organic pigments, are irreversibly damaged by light. The effect is cumulative and directly related to both the intensity and duration of exposure.

Now if we really wanted to preserve these objects for the longest possible time, they would need to be kept in the dark at all times. But we also have a second responsibility, and that is to let the public enjoy these works. So we make a compromise:  light-sensitive works are displayed for a limited period of time once every few years, under carefully controlled lighting conditions (we don’t make the galleries dim just to vex our visitors, really!). This practice minimizes exposure so that the next generation can enjoy the same works that inspire us today.

Registrar Cathy Mano unpacks bamboo sculptures and baskets for the Japanese basket rotation

Besides allowing us to meet the twin responsibilities of preserving our collection while allowing for public enjoyment, rotations are an opportunity to change up our galleries and keep them fresh. This is a chance to to explore themes not otherwise considered by our permanent exhibitions,  to debut new acquisitions, and to show off the depth and variety of our collection.

This summer our Chinese painting gallery will provide an introduction to print techniques used in Chinese art (see Xensen’s great post on the newly acquired reduction woodcut prints featured in this particular rotation). An exciting gift of Korean historical photographs depicting the grandeur of lost palaces will be on view in the Korean galleries beginning July 14. A new selection of Japanese baskets — selected from the more than 1,000 works that constitute the Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Collection — will grace our Japanese galleries. Other changes will bring new sights to the Japanese painting galleries, Himalayan art, and the third floor South Asia, West Asia, and Southeast Asia exhibition areas.

Photographs of historic Korean palaces of the Joseon dynasty are prepared for the Korean gallery rotation

These changes will be happening throughout the summer, during those mysterious hours when the museum is closed. You can find out which works have recently rotated by looking for the blue “Newly on View” icon on gallery labels. And be sure to enjoy these wonderful selections from our permanent collection before our next series of rotations in the Spring of 2010.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

Rotations make the museum go ’round

I don’t know much about this vase but it reminds me of Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pieta, his final sculpture until his death in 1564, in which he revisited the theme of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ. It was produced at a time when Michelangelo was thinking about his own mortality and his spirituality was also growing. When viewing the sculpture from certain angles, it looks as if Jesus is holding Mary up with his back, instead of Mary cradling Jesus. It is said that Michelangelo carefully crafted it this way to represent how Jesus’s spirit might actually have been comforting Mary in her loss. Compared to the museum’s vase, I like both objects for their utter simplicity and yet speaks volumes. Somewhere in Iran, a mother is also grieving for her child. In times like these, sometimes we turn to art to give us comfort and I certainly hope these objects provide that.

This is a post from: the blog of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Visit us at www.asianart.org.

For Neda