Arts of Korea Gallery
Installation dates: November 18, 2009—April 25, 2010
Location: Arts of Korea Gallery, second floor
The Arts of Korea Gallery features an elegant, large-scale work entitled 25 Wishes by the well-known Korean-American artist Ik-joong Kang (b. 1960). Consisting of 25 subtly differentiated images of a porcelain moon jar, this multi-panel installation replicates, repeats, and transforms a familiar and iconic Korean art object from the Joseon period (1392-1910). The work also embodies layers of poignant associations from the artist's own life and engages the viewers to visualize their own reveries. 25 Wishes, on loan from the artist, is exhibited with the exquisite 18th-century Moon Jar the from the Metropolitan's own collection. They are accompanied by related porcelains and other ceramics from the 15th through the 19th century, all drawn from the Museum's collection.
Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art
Treasures from the Packard Collection
Installation dates: December 17, 2009 – June 6, 2010
Location: The Sackler Wing Galleries for the Arts of Japan, 2nd Floor
In 1975, The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired, through gifts and purchase, more than 400 hundred works of Japanese art from collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914-1991); the daring acquisition transformed the Museum instantly into an institution boasting one of the preeminent collections of Japanese art in the Western world, with
encyclopedic holdings from the Neolithic period through the 19th century. To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the acquisition, the Museum will showcase its particular strengths in archaeological artifacts, Buddhist iconographic scrolls, ceramics, screen paintings of the Momoyama and Edo periods (16th-19th centuries), and sculptures of the Heian and Kamakura periods (9th-14th centuries). Highlights will include a pairing of masterpieces by the Kano school master and his son: The Old Plum, a set of sliding-door panels by Kano Sansetsu (1589-1651) from the Packard Collection, and the recently acquired One Hundred Boys, a pair of six-fold screens by Sansetsu's son Kano Einô (1631-97).
A variety of educational programs will accompany the exhibition, including a "Sunday at the Met" lecture program on April 18. To learn more, visit the Museum's Web site at www.metmuseum.org
Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting
Xie Zhiliu (1910–1997)
Installation dates: February 6 – July 25, 2010
Location: Galleries for Chinese Painting and Calligraphy
Featuring some 100 works by Xie Zhiliu ("sheyeh jer leeyo"), one of modern China's leading traditional artists and connoisseurs, Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhiliu (1910-1997) will examine a rare trove of materials illustrating how Chinese artists historically learned both from earlier masterpieces and from nature. Drawn from a recent gift of more than 200 works—paintings, sketches, studies, calligraphies, and poetry manuscripts— that were given to the Museum by the artist's daughter Sarah Shay, the installation will mark the 100th anniversary of Xie's birth. A number of the sketches and copies will be accompanied by photographic images of earlier models and Xie's own finished works to reveal how he developed his unique style through a combination of both careful imitation and creative adaptation. Maxwell K. Hearn, Curator of the Department of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, has
observed: "Chinese painting is singularly lacking in examples of how traditional painters learned their craft. While the general outlines are known, this rich body of material will provide a unique resource for studying the creative process in detail, demonstrating how artists learned both from the careful study and copying of earlier models as well as through the sketching of actual flowers and landscapes." Complementing Xie's sketches and paintings will be a display of some of the artist's seals, which constitute a valuable anthology of the seal carver's art by many of the leading practitioners of the late 20th century.
A variety of educational programs will accompany the installation, including a "Sunday at the Met" lecture program on February 18. To learn more, visit the Museum's Web site at www.metmuseum.org.
Celebration: The Birthday in Chinese Art
Installation dates: February 27-August 15, 2010
Location: Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for Chinese Decorative Arts, 3rd floor
Birthday celebrations and concomitant themes of longevity are pervasive in Chinese art of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Celebration: The Birthday in Chinese Art will draw together some 50 works in many media from the Metropolitan Museum's collection—lacquers, paintings, jades, textiles and costumes, ceramics—to illustrate these auspicious themes. Works on view will include a splendid lacquered screen, a set of embroidered hanging scrolls, and a colorful porcelain vase, all depicting a scene of the 80th-birthday gathering for the Tang-dynasty general Guo Ziyi, a popular figure of long life, wealth, and honor. Longevity is also encoded in peaches, cranes, immortals, and flora and fauna of many kinds, sometimes forming sophisticated visual word play expressing wishes of long life for the honoree.
Epic India: Scenes from the Ramayana
Installation dates: March 31—September 19, 2010
Location: Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for the Arts of
South and Southeast Asia, Indian Painting
Among the themes most favored for Indian miniature painting are episodes from the great Indian epic the Ramayana. This classic of early Indian literature is infused with mythology and the legendary exploits of the gods, but above all tells the story of Lord Vishnu in his early appearance as Rama, a divine-king revered as the embodiment of nobility and virtue. The mythology of Rama provides the subject matter for an important genre of Indian art, most especially paintings but also sculptures and pictorial narrative textiles. Works selected are drawn largely from the Museum's collections, with important loans from private collections, representing the major schools of northern Indian painting, from Mughal court manuscript folios to Hindu court painting commissioned for the rulers of the Punjab.
A variety of educational programs will accompany the installation, including programs for teen audiences and a teacher workshop. To learn more, visit the Museum's Web site at www.metmuseum.org
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November 23, 2009
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