Doris Duke and Her Southeast Asian Art Collection
Doris Duke (1912-1993) inherited a fortune from her father James Buchanan
Duke, a tobacco and hydropower magnate and benefactor of Duke University.
From the time of a honeymoon tour to India, Thailand, Indonesia, and other
Asian countries in 1935, Doris Duke was fascinated with the region’s cultures.
In later decades she gathered countless antiques and artworks on her worldwide
excursions and assembled notable collections of Islamic and Southeast Asian
art.
Duke herself was a notable personality who featured prominently in celebrity magazines. This exhibition featuring artworks from her collection tells a little-known chapter of this intriguing woman’s life.
Doris Duke’s Southeast Asian art collection comprised more than 2000 artworks
and other objects including woodcarvings, furniture, traditional costumes,
weapons, theatrical masks, and musical instruments as well as utilitarian
household utensils and pottery. The collection was housed at Duke Farms—Doris
Duke’s estate in New Jersey—where for many years it remained largely unknown
to both the public and specialists. Many art objects were displayed in a
handsome converted coach barn. Others were stored in an indoor tennis court
and an indoor shooting gallery.
After Doris Duke’s death in 1993, her Southeast Asian art collection became the responsibility of the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. After careful consideration, the trustees decided that Doris Duke would have wanted the objects to be shared with the public, and approved a plan to donate the collection to appropriate museums. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore received the largest donations. In total, the foundation donated nearly 700 objects to some twenty museums across the US and abroad.
Before donating the collection, the foundation commissioned a book by Dr.
Nancy Tingley, formerly a curator at the Asian Art Museum, to document the
history and significance of the collection. The book, Doris Duke: The
Southeast Asian Art Collection, is available in the
museum store and can be downloaded free of charge from the
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s web site.
