Ideals of Beauty

Ideals of Beauty

Author: Julian Raby

Publisher: Thames and Hudson

Published: 2010-03-30

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A curator-led tour through more than one hundred masterworks.


The China Collectors

The China Collectors

Author: Karl E. Meyer

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2015-03-10

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 1466879297

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Thanks to Salem sea captains, Gilded Age millionaires, curators on horseback and missionaries gone native, North American museums now possess the greatest collections of Chinese art outside of East Asia itself. How did it happen? The China Collectors is the first full account of a century-long treasure hunt in China from the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion to Mao Zedong's 1949 ascent. The principal gatherers are mostly little known and defy invention. They included "foreign devils" who braved desert sandstorms, bandits and local warlords in acquiring significant works. Adventurous curators like Langdon Warner, a forebear of Indiana Jones, argued that the caves of Dunhuang were already threatened by vandals, thereby justifying the removal of frescoes and sculptures. Other Americans include George Kates, an alumnus of Harvard, Oxford and Hollywood, who fell in love with Ming furniture. The Chinese were divided between dealers who profited from the artworks' removal, and scholars who sought to protect their country's patrimony. Duanfang, the greatest Chinese collector of his era, was beheaded in a coup and his splendid bronzes now adorn major museums. Others in this rich tapestry include Charles Lang Freer, an enlightened Detroit entrepreneur, two generations of Rockefellers, and Avery Brundage, the imperious Olympian, and Arthur Sackler, the grand acquisitor. No less important are two museum directors, Cleveland's Sherman Lee and Kansas City's Laurence Sickman, who challenged the East Coast's hegemony. Shareen Blair Brysac and Karl E. Meyer even-handedly consider whether ancient treasures were looted or salvaged, and whether it was morally acceptable to spirit hitherto inaccessible objects westward, where they could be studied and preserved by trained museum personnel. And how should the US and Canada and their museums respond now that China has the means and will to reclaim its missing patrimony?


The Asian Modern

The Asian Modern

Author: John Clark

Publisher:

Published: 2020-01-15

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9789811407208

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

John Clark's magisterial The Asian Modern reconstructs the notion of art and its historiography. Writing the history of the Asian modern through the social life of artists, he generates a new paradigm for the narration of art. Both volumes meticulously chart his analysis of art in Asia from the 1850s to the present day, and are an invaluable resource for the scholar and layman alike.


Asian Art History in the Twenty-first Century

Asian Art History in the Twenty-first Century

Author: Vishakha N. Desai

Publisher: Clark Art Institute

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This text explores the field of Asian art and its historiography, tensions, and possible future directions. It features essays by 14 leading authors specializing in Chinese, East Asian, Indian and Japanese art history, and considers what is meant by 'Asian art' and how it should be understood in relation to geopolitics.


Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions

Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions

Author: Caroline Turner

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2014-10-03

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1925022005

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“… a diverse and stimulating group of essays that together represents a significant contribution to thinking about the nascent field of contemporary Asian art studies … Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making … brings together essays by significant academics, curators and artist working in Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom that reflect on contemporary art in the Asia-Pacific region, and Australia’s cultural interconnections with Asia. It will be a welcome addition to the body of literature related to these emergent areas of art historical study. ” — Dr Claire Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Art History, University of Adelaide This volume draws together essays by leading art experts observing the dramatic developments in Asian art and exhibitions in the last two decades. The authors explore new regional and global connections and new ways of understanding contemporary Asian art in the twenty-first century. The essays coalesce around four key themes: world-making; intra-Asian regional connections; art’s affective capacity in cross-cultural engagement; and Australia’s cultural connections with Asia. In exploring these themes, the essays adopt a diversity of approaches and encompass art history, art theory, visual culture and museum studies, as well as curatorial and artistic practice. With introductory and concluding essays by editors Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner this volume features contributions from key writers on the region and on contemporary art: Patrick D Flores, John Clark, Chaitanya Sambrani, Pat Hoffie, Charles Merewether, Marsha Meskimmon, Francis Maravillas, Oscar Ho, Alison Carroll and Jacqueline Lo. Richly illustrated with artworks by leading contemporary Asian artists, Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making will be essential reading for those interested in recent developments in contemporary Asian art, including students and scholars of art history, Asian studies, museum studies, visual and cultural studies.


Ancient Chinese Art

Ancient Chinese Art

Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 0870994832

DOWNLOAD EBOOK


Whistler in Watercolor

Whistler in Watercolor

Author: Freer Gallery of Art

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780300243628

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This book accompanies the exhibition Whistler in Watercolor: Lovely Little Games, organized by and on view at the Freer Gallery of Art from May 18 through October 6, 2019"--Colophon.


Chinese Art: The Impossible Collection

Chinese Art: The Impossible Collection

Author: Adrian Cheng

Publisher: Assouline Publishing

Published: 2021-05-01

Total Pages: 6

ISBN-13: 1614288844

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

While readers will come away from Chinese Art with a nuanced understanding of Chinese culture, the volume is also a work of art in its own right—a must-have collectible for any devotee of Chinese art and culture. Assouline’s Ultimate Collection is an homage to the art of luxury bookmaking—the oversized volume is hand-bound using traditional techniques, with several of the plates hand-tipped on art-quality paper and housed in a luxury silk clamshell.


Hokusai's Landscapes

Hokusai's Landscapes

Author: Sarah Thompson

Publisher: MFA Publications

Published: 2019-10-10

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780878468669

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A beautiful collection of Hokusai's prints, all from the largest collection of Japanese prints from outside of Japan The best known of all Japanese artists, Katsushika Hokusai was active as a painter, book illustrator and print designer throughout his ninety-year lifespan. Yet his most famous works of all - the colour woodblock landscape prints issued in series, beginning with Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji - were produced within a relatively short time, in an amazing burst of creative energy that lasted from about 1830 to 1836. Hokusai's landscapes not only revolutionized Japanese printmaking but within a few decades of his death had become icons of world art as well. With stunning colour reproductions of works from the largest collection of Japanese prints outside Japan, this book examines the magnetic appeal of Hokusai's designs and the circumstances of their creation. All published prints of his eight major landscape series are included.