Rubin Museum — “Project Himalayan Art”
Online and Various Locations
Project Himalayan Art is an interdisciplinary resource for learning about Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian art and cultures. This three part-initiative is designed to support the inclusion of these cultures into undergraduate teaching on Asia and presents Himalayan art to the general public. The project focuses on cross-cultural exchange with Tibet at the center and Buddhism as the thread that connects the diverse cultural regions. The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art presents exhibitions, projects, and collaborative initiatives that deepen awareness of Himalayan art and cultures.
HKMoA — “Art of Gifting: The Fuyun Xuan Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles”
Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Epitomising the finest skills of Chinese artisans, small and delicate snuff bottles became popular among nobilities and high-ranking officials since emerging in the early Qing dynasty, and were often given as precious gifts in diplomatic, official and social settings. This exhibition showcases the whole of a set of 490 Chinese snuff bottles from the Fuyun Xuan Collection donated by Mr Christopher Sin and Mrs Josephine Sin, and with the theme of gifting, the audience is invited to step into the unique, kaleidoscopic world of these miniature yet precious gifts.
The Met — “Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Selections from the Collection”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, USA
This exhibition spans a millennium and a half of cultural production and a variety of genres, techniques, and styles, with 90 works, to introduce key themes of Chinese history, culture, and art. Highlights include Palace Banquet, one of the Met’s earliest and most important Chinese paintings; Xianyu Shu’s (1246–1302) calligraphy Song of the Stone Drums; Cloudy Mountains, one of the surviving masterpieces of the Daoist landscape painter Fang Congyi (about 1301–after 1378); Shitao’s touching Returning Home (about 1695); and the magisterial Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Four.
The Met — “The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, USA
This exhibition presents over 160 rare Japanese works that showcase the power and complexity of the traditional three forms of art. Examples include folding screens with poems brushed on sumptuous decorated papers, calligraphy by Zen monks of medieval Kyoto, hanging scrolls with paintings and inscriptions alluding to Chinese and Japanese literary classics, ceramics used for tea gatherings, and more. The majority of the works were donated or promised to The Met by Mary and Cheney Cowles, whose collection is one of the finest assemblages of Japanese art outside Japan.
Musée Guimet — “Gold Ming”
Musée Guimet, 6 Pl. d'Iéna, 75116 Paris, France
During the Ming Period (1368-1644), gold craftsmanship achieved unparalleled luxury and delicacy. This unparalleled refinement in the art of jewellery, with its unique and intricate aesthetics, reflects the splendour of the Ming dynasty, regarded today as a golden era of Chinese civilisation. Today, there are very few gold objects left from the Ming era. Made possible by exceptional loans from the Qujiang Fine Arts Museum (X’ian, China), the exhibition invites people to go beyond aesthetic contemplation to learn more about the role gold played in the Ming dynasty, the techniques used in goldsmithing and the significance of motifs and their official symbolism.
HK Palace Museum — “The Origins of Chinese Civilisation”
Hong Kong Palace Museum, 8 Museum Drive, Hong Kong
The exhibition offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of the origins of Chinese civilisation in recent years, featuring nearly 110 rare, recent archaeological finds and significant treasures on loan from 14 museums and archaeological organisations in China, including16 grade-one national treasures. Partnering museums include The Palace Museum, National Museum of China, Shanxi Museum, Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Liangzhu Museum, Hanshan Museum, Shandong University Museum, Erlitou Site Museum of the Xia Capital, Hubei Provincial Museum, Jingzhou Museum, Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, Shaanxi Archaeological Museum, and Gansu Provincial Museum.
British Museum — “Silk Roads”
Great Russell St, London, United Kingdom
Working with 29 national and international partners to present objects from many regions and cultures alongside those from the British Museum collection, the exhibition offers a unique chance to see objects from the length and breadth of the Silk Roads. From Tang Chinese ceramics destined for ports in the Middle East to Indian garnets found in Suffolk, they reveal the astonishing reach of these networks. Highlight objects from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that have never been seen in the UK before also underpin the importance of Central Asia to this continent-spanning story.
British Library — “A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang”
96 Euston Road, London, United Kingdom
The oasis of Dunhuang, at the edge of the Gobi Desert, was once a bustling town on the famous Silk Road connecting China and the Mediterranean. This exhibition provides a rare glimpse into the ordinary lives of people long ago through the remarkable contents of the Library Cave, part of the Buddhist cave complex of Mogao, where a wealth of manuscripts, documents and artworks remained sealed for nearly 900 years. Detailing life in and around Dunhuang during the first millennium, the documents include personal letters and wills encompassing multiple languages, faiths and cultures including Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity; and span topics as diverse as literature, astronomy, medicine, politics and art.
Wereldmuseum Rotterdam — “Made In China”
Willemskade 25 3016 DM, Rotterdam, Netherlands
This exhibition takes China as a case study for a new perspective on the act of making, it showcases China’s culture of making, which is both ancient and vibrant, through a mix of objects, timelines, art, fashion, photographs, and videos. It also explores the diverse meanings of “making” through the lens of contemporary artists and designers such as Cao Fei, Susan Fang, Jing He, Ma Ke, Li Xiaofeng, and Yang Yongliang. They are makers, but they also reflect on different aspects of the making process in their work.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — “Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples”
Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, Texas, USA
This expansive exhibition explores 3,000 years of spiritual belief and practice through 200 historic and contemporary objects. British art historian and long-time museum director Neil MacGregor was invited to revisit his 2017 BBC radio series and book of the same title, bringing that vision to great objects in the MFAH’s collections as well as landmark loans from international institutions. Displayed in dialogue across a suite of 11 galleries, the installations will explore elemental themes such as the cosmos, light, water, fire; the mysteries of life and death; the divine word; and pilgrimage. The exhibition draws from regions across ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe and the Americas.
Musée Guimet — “Kazakhstan, Treasures of the Great Steppe”
Musée Guimet, 6 Pl. d'Iéna, 75116 Paris, France
Land of the Golden Man and the great kurgans, Kazakhstan is a country of legends on the edge of the steppes of Central Asia. Its vast landscape, across which a web of silk routes once stretched, is steeped in rich cultural and human history. This exhibition sheds light on moments that have marked this civilisation through five unique cultural stories, dating from third century BC to the 18th century, showcasing exceptional loans from prominent Kazakh museums—including the original headdress from the emblematic Golden Man—which are presented in a poetic and innovative exhibition that plunges the objects and visitors into the extraordinary landscapes of Kazakhstan.
V&A — “The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence”
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, United Kingdom
This major exhibition celebrates the extraordinary creative output and internationalist culture of the Golden Age of the Mughal Court (about 1560 – 1660) during the reigns of its most famous emperors: Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, shining a light on one of the wealthiest courts in the world. It draws together famous, rarely seen objects from the V&A collections and significant national and international loans. Rarely shown paintings and illustrated manuscripts not seen for a generation are displayed alongside delicate textiles, brilliantly coloured carpets and fine objects made of mother of pearl, rock crystal, jade and precious metals.
HK Palace Museum — “The Forbidden City and The Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”
Hong Kong Palace Museum, 8 Museum Drive, Hong Kong
This exhibition presents nearly 150 treasures from the Palace Museum and the Palace of Versailles, illuminating the fascinating encounters and exchanges between China and France in science, artisanship, arts, culture, and philosophy during the 17th and 18th centuries. The objects tell stories of the special bonds forged between the two through mutual admiration and respect, which provided new incentives to expand skills and knowledge and create new art forms.
Asia Society — “Imperial Treasures: Chinese Ceramics of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection”
Asia Society New York, 725 Park Avenue New York, NY, USA
Known for exquisite porcelain production and expansive trade, the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) represents a period of Chinese imperial rule between the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and the rise of the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The approximately 20 works selected for this exhibition demonstrate how early Ming ceramics inherited the rich and culturally diverse legacy of the Mongol rulers by adopting foreign influences through vibrant trade with the Islamic and Central Asian worlds and combining them with indigenous Chinese traditions.
National Museum of Asian Art — “Delighting Krishna: Paintings of the Child-God”
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC, USA
Pushtimarg religious spaces feature monumental paintings of Krishna on cotton cloth known as pichwais. For the first time since the 1970s, these 14 pichwais from the National Museum of Asian Art’s collections are on view for the public. These paintings are literally larger than life, averaging about 8 by 8 feet in size. Pichwais are made to serve as backdrops for three-dimensional displays, typically paired with icons of Krishna, music, and scents. This collection of pichwais dates from the 18th to the 20th century, and most were painted in Nathdwara, Rajasthan, the global epicenter of the Pushtimarg community.
Musée Guimet — “Tang China”
Musée Guimet, 6 Pl. d'Iéna, 75116 Paris, France
Organised in partnership with Art Exhibitions China, the exhibition showcases 207 works from more than 30 Chinese museums recounting 300 years of effervescent art and literature, a flourishing cosmopolitan population and the rise of centralised administration of the Tang dynasty (618-907). The Tang secured peace, reorganised the state and helped turn their vast country a land of economic and cultural prosperity which would shape the cultural and administrative foundations of China over the next millennium. While the era was a time of strong development in agriculture and craftsmanship, it was also a golden age for the arts; creativity flourished in painting, sculpture, music and dance more than ever before.