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Spring Into Art at Asia Society Museum

Now on view in New York

March 19th, 2019 by Ami Li

This spring, the exhibitions at Asia Society include thought-provoking contemporary sculptures wrestling with the violence of war, monumental modern Indian painting from a founder of the Progressive Artists' Group, exquisitely detailed maps and objects tracing the 18th-century convergence of China and Europe, and masterpieces of the ancient world from the Asia Society Museum Collection. Keep an eye on our site for events, lectures, and symposia related to the artworks on display, and don't forget that the museum is open late and free to attend every Friday until 9 p.m.


In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe

Snuff Bottle
Snuff Bottle. China. Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong period, 1736–95. Painted enamel on copper. H. 2 1/8 x W. 1 1/2 x D. 3/4 in. (5.4 x 3.8 x 1.9 cm); Base: H. 5/8 x Diam. 1 1/4 x 3/4 in. (1.6 x 3.2 x 1.9 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bequest of Edmund C. Converse, 1921, 21.175.314a,b. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY

This small, focused exhibition uses one of the rare prints of Ma Junliang's map of the world (Jingban tianwen quantu) as a starting point to consider the interaction between China and Europe during the eighteenth century. The map offers viewers a Chinese perspective about power and the nature of the world with China at the center. The exhibition also includes Chinese eighteenth-century artworks that appropriate and reinterpret European images and techniques.

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Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday 5 August, 1963

Reza Aramesh. Action 134: December 31, 1980, Ankara, Turkey, 2013.
Reza Aramesh. Action 134: December 31, 1980, Ankara, Turkey, 2013. Limewood, glass eyes, oil and acrylic paint, linen, and MDF. H. 22 1/8 x W. 12 1/2 x D. 9 1/8 in.  (56 x 31.5 x 23 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery. Photograph courtesy of Reza Aramesh

Reza Aramesh examines the power imbalance between captor and captive and the aestheticization of violence in media coverage of wartime atrocities. The exhibition will focus on Aramesh’s series of limewood sculptures inspired by seventeenth-century Spanish Christian iconography of martyred saints. His models, predominantly young, non-European male subjects, exude a homoerotic sensibility that adds a charged religious and sexual dynamic within representations of violence and evokes the military practice of sexual humiliation as a form of torture.

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Masterpieces from the Asia Society Museum Collection

Foliate Bowl-and-Saucer Sets. Korea, South Cholla Province. Goryeo period, early 12th century.
Foliate Bowl-and-Saucer Sets. Korea, South Cholla Province. Goryeo period, early 12th century. Stoneware with glaze. Bowls, H. 3 5/8 x Diam. 5 3/4 in. (9.2 x 14.6 cm); saucers, H. 1 1/8 x Diam. 6 1/4 in. (2.9 x 15.9 cm). Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.193.1-4. Photograph by Synthescape

This exhibition features a selection of the finest artworks from the renowned Asia Society Museum Collection. Included are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese ceramics; Indian and Cambodian sculpture; and sculptures from South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayas that show the varied imagery associated with the transmission of Buddhism across the region.

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M.F. Husain: Art and the Nation

M.F. Husain. Lightning (detail), 1975. Oil on canvas.
M.F. Husain. Lightning (detail),1975. Oil on canvas. Twelve panels, overall: H.10 x W. 60 ft. (3 x 18 m). Marguerite and Kent Charugundla Collection. Image courtesy of the lenders.

One of the founding members of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, M.F. Husain created the mural-sized painting Lightning for then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party public rally in 1975 in Bombay (Mumbai), the same year that a state of emergency was imposed across India. The twelve massive panels of Lightning are littered with visual references to India and the 1970s, and though absent visually, to Indira Gandhi.

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Photos from the members' reception for In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe, Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday, 5 August, 1963, and Masterpieces from the Asia Society Museum Collection. To learn more about joining Asia Society as a member or patron, click here.

Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday, 5 August, 1963
Members' opening reception and private viewing for 'Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday 5 August, 1963,' 'Masterpieces from the Asia Society Museum Collection,' and 'In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe.' (Ellen Wallop/Asia Society)
Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday, 5 August, 1963
Installation view, 'Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday 5 August, 1963.' (Ellen Wallop/Asia Society)
In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe
Asia Society John H. Foster Senior Curator for Traditional Asian Art Adriana Proser introduces a rare eighteenth-century, Chinese-made world map or 'mappa mundi,' the central object of 'In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe.' (Ellen Wallop/Asia Society)
Masterpieces from the Asia Society Museum Collection
Asia Society members and supporters enjoy a tour of 'Masterpieces from the Asia Society Museum Collection' led by Head of Arts Education Nancy Blume. (Ellen Wallop/Asia Society)
In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe
Attendees at the opening inspect the exquisitely detailed map of the world. (Ellen Wallop/Asia Society)

Related Exhibitions

Snuff Box

In Focus: A Complete Map of the World—The Eighteenth-century Convergence of China and Europe

05 Feb 2019 - 05 May 2019
This exhibition takes Ma Junliang’s Complete Map of the World as a starting point to consider interactions between China and Europe during the eighteenth century.

 Action 132:  Saigon, 5 August 1963 (detail)

Reza Aramesh: 12 noon, Monday 5 August, 1963

05 Mar 2019 - 04 Aug 2019
Reza Aramesh examines the power imbalance between captor and captive and the aestheticization of violence in media coverage of wartime atrocities.
Nonomura Ninsei (Japanese, active ca. 1646–77). Tea Leaf Jar. Edo period (1615–1868), 1670s. Japan, Kyoto Prefecture.

Masterpieces from the Asia Society Museum Collection

05 Mar 2019 - 04 Aug 2019
This exhibition features a selection of the finest artworks from the renowned Asia Society Museum Collection.
Lightning (detail)

M.F. Husain: Art and the Nation

20 Mar 2019 - 04 Aug 2019
An exhibition focused on M.F. Husain's mural-sized painting Lightning, created for then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party public rally in 1975.
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