Asian Art: Janis Kanter and Thomas McCormick

The Asian collection encompasses a rich variety of forms, materials, functions, and subjects, ranging from millennia-old ritual bronzes to contemporary photography. It covers a wide geographic region but focuses on the arts of East Asia and of Buddhism as a pan-Asian cultural phenomenon.

The paintings, sculptures, prints, and ceramics on view in 2016–2017 encompass the rich histories of the arts of China, Korea, and Japan, with special emphasis on the diverse styles, media, and imagery of all three cultures.

The Asian collection encompasses a rich variety of forms, materials, functions, and subjects, ranging from millennia-old ritual bronzes to contemporary photography. It covers a wide geographic region but focuses on the arts of East Asia and of Buddhism as a pan-Asian cultural phenomenon.

The paintings, sculptures, prints, and ceramics on view in 2016–2017 encompass the rich histories of the arts of China, Korea, and Japan, with special emphasis on the diverse styles, media, and imagery of all three cultures.

Stretching across thousands of years, these secular and religious objects highlight key historical epochs and national styles. They also reveal how foreign art forms and ideas were adapted to local tastes, and sketch out the lines of inter-regional cultural transmission that are especially central to scholarly painting and ceramic traditions in East Asia.

Modern and contemporary works on view—in old and new media—offer a creative dialogue with the past.