Resources

The Asian Art Museum presented Korea Foundation Korean Culture Day on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013 for the fifth consecutive year. This feast of Korean culture featured food, music and other performances as well as hands-on art activities for all ages. The festival was presented in conjunction with the museum’s special exhibition, In Grand Style: Celebrations in Korean Art during the Joseon Dynasty.

Learn more about hidden meanings in Chinese art from Asian Art Museum docent, Linda Lei. This talk was given to teachers from the Chinese American International School (CAIS) for their professional development day at the Asian Art Museum on August 23, 2011.

The stone pagoda structure is called the Great Wild Goose Pagoda enclosed within the Ci’en (Temple of Mercy) monastery in present-day Xi’an. It was erected in 652 to commemorate the return of the temple’s abbott, the celebrated monk Xuanzang. This heroic figure to Chinese Buddhist history traveled west across the Silk Road and throughout India for sixteen years, exploring the homeland of Buddhism before returning with hundreds of sutras (Buddhist texts).

Ghatotkacha (Gatotkaca), son of Bhima (Bima), approx. 1970, by M. Ahim. Indonesia; Ciampea, West Java. Wood, cloth, and mixed media. From the Mimi and John Herbert Collection, F2000.86.78.

Japanese artist and pop icon Fuyuko Matsui explores the haunted, interconnected realms of traditional and modern aesthetics. As one of the few women to have attained top training and mastery of traditional Japanese painting (nihonga) techniques in Japan, Matsui also cites centuries-old artistic influences, such as the iconoclastic eighteenth-century painter Soga Shohhaku and the fifteenth-century painter Soga Jasoku.

Contemporary Korean ceramic artists Sung Min, Kwon Shin, Kim jin Kyoung, and Park Nae Heon discuss their works.

Flowers and Birds of the Twelve Months, one of a pair (1703), by Yamamoto Soken (1683-1706). Japan. Six panel folding screen; Ink and colors on silk. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60D82+.1.

Festivities of the Twelve Months, approx. 1700-1800. Japan. Handscroll; ink and colors on paper. The Avery Brundage Collection, B86D19.

Learn about the festival in India for one of the most popular forms of the Goddess—Durga.

Festival of Sumiyoshi Shrine, one of a pair, 1650–1700. Six panel folding screen; ink, colors and gold on paper. Transfer from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Gift of Mrs. Herbert Fleishacker, B69D58.