EMERALD CITIES: ARTS OF SIAM AND BURMA
23 October - 17 January, 2010
Emerald Cities is the first major exhibition in the West to explore the rich but little known arts of Siam and Burma from the 19th Century
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In
the 19th-century Siam and Burma—two neighboring kingdoms in Southeast Asia—were
renowned for their golden-roofed temples, lush gardens, and handsomely adorned
palaces.
Emerald Cities is the first major exhibition in the West to explore
the rich but little known arts of Siam and Burma from this period. Many
of the 140 stunning artworks—including gilded ritual vessels, mother-of-pearl
inlaid furniture, colorful paintings, manuscripts, exquisite textiles, delicate
ceramics, and more—were recently acquired by the museum from the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation and are on display for the first time.
The Asian Art Museum is the exclusive venue for this exhibition.
Photographic Memories
13 March - 17 January, 2010
The second installation of this display highlights a new group of historical photographs from the Asian Art Museum’s collection.
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The second installation of this display highlights a new group of
historical photographs from the Asian Art Museum’s collection. The
images reflect varied perspectives on the lives people led in Asia, and
record travels people took there at the end of the nineteenth century.
These views are controlled by the lens of Western and local
photographers and are informed by their personal visions, official
missions, and commercial motivations. The subjects range from formal
portraits of princes to picturesque landscapes and architecture. The
majority of the 41 works on view document life in colonial India. The
remaining works feature China, Japan and Korea as their subjects. Most
of the photographs date from 1850 to 1910. Together, they succeed in
being more than personal memories. The photographs offer a glimpse into
the ambivalent relationships between the colonizers and colonized (in
the case of India), touch on issues such as perceptions of the ‘other’,
and comment on the political and social realities wrought by modernity
and a changing world at the turn of the century.
Photographic Memories is
housed in the intimate Tateuchi Thematic Gallery located on the second
floor of the museum between the Korean and Japanese galleries. Please
note that the gallery will be closed on Monday, Aug 24 and Tuesday, Aug
25 to allow for the installation of the new photographs.
