More than 2500 extraordinary works from the museum’s collection are displayed in the museum’s permanent galleries. Artworks on view include monumental South Asian stone sculptures, luminous Chinese jades, vibrant Korean paintings, mystical Tibetan thangkas, serene Cambodian Buddhas, richly decorated Islamic manuscripts, and subtle Japanese ceramics.
A Curious Affair: The Fascination between East and West
June 17–September 3, 2006
The interaction of Asia and Europe has been one of the great processes of global history and culture. This exhibition takes a light-hearted look at the legacies of this interaction—and of the mutual fascination— between the two regions over the past five centuries.
A Curious Affair features more than 75 paintings, sculptures, furniture, ceramics, and other decorative arts. Included are artworks made in Great Britain, the United States, and France as well as in China, India, Japan, and other Asian countries. They are drawn from private Bay Area collections and the collection of the Asian Art Museum, and many have never before been exhibited publicly.
A Curious Affair: The Fascination between East and West was organized by the Asian Art Museum. This exhibition is made possible by generous support from HSBC Bank USA, N.A., the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and Fred M. and Nancy Livingston Levin, The Shenson Foundation. Media sponsors: SF Weekly, SFStation.com, and Where Magazine.
Image: Three European Men (detail), 1580-1620, Japan. Ink, colors, gold on paper. Lent by Ann and Gordon Getty.
|
Hidden Meanings
October 7–December 31, 2006
Symbolism abounds in the decorative arts of China, rendering clothing, personal adornment, and household objects rich with meaning. A gourd-shaped vase decorated with bats is more than just ornamental: it is a promising omen, as the gourd symbolizes fertility by virtue of its numerous seeds, and the imagery of bats implies the sentiment "blessings vast as the sky." By surrounding themselves with such symbols, many Chinese believed that wishes would be fulfilled. This exhibition unlocks the mysteries of these "hidden meanings” and offers a glimpse into the time-honored importance of auspicious symbolism in Chinese culture. Imperial porcelains and jades from the museum's acclaimed Avery Brundage Collection illustrate pictorial motifs that represent wishes for fertility, a harmonious marriage, wealth and prosperity, long life, and more.
Hidden Meanings: Symbolism in Porcelains and Jades of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
was organized by the Asian Art Museum
Image: Double-necked vase, approx. 1800-1900, China. Porcelain with blue glaze.
Gift of Beverly and Stuart Denenberg, 1988.31. |
Elephants on Parade
February 18–August 6, 2006
Tateuchi Thematic Gallery
Highlights include an elaborate silver howdah made for a raja’s use in ceremonial processions, sculptures of caparisoned elephants dating from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries, and British and Indian paintings, textiles, lithographs, and original historical photographs depicting elephant processions through the ages.
Image: Two figures in a howdah atop an elephant, approx. 1750–1900. India; Bastar, Madhya Pradesh state. Brass. From the Collection of William K. Ehrenfeld, M.D. 2005.64.182. |
|
First Thursday Evening Lectures
6:30 PM-8:00 PM
These lectures are open to the general public and reservations are required. Seating is limited. For detailed information about upcoming talks. please call the Society for Asian Art at 415-581-3701 to reserve places.
|
|
Images © Asian Art Museum • San Francisco, CA |
 |
