Looking at Art

Asian Art Museum Storyteller Miriam Mills tells an excerpt from the Ramayana in the Southeast Asian galleries at the Asian Art Museum with the use of artworks from the museum’s collection.

When one thinks of Chinese painting one might think of hanging scrolls and handscrolls. Wall paintings were an early form of painting, preserved today in cave temples, temple buildings, and tombs. Written records describe paintings on palace walls and in humbler dwellings. One of the first advocates of landscape painting, Zong Bing, wrote in the 5th century about the joys of having landscape paintings on the walls of his house so he could imagine himself in the untrammeled world of mountains and streams, mists, trees, and rocks. Hanging scrolls of silk provided wall decoration that could be changed or removed. Handscrolls, primarily used for written documents, became vehicles for the illustrations of paragons of virtue or of supernatural spirits as well as panoramic landscapes, and bird and flower paintings.

Inro with map of Japan, 1670-1722. By Shiomi Masanari (Japanese, 1647 – approx. 1722), Lacquered wood with sprinkled metallic powder (maki-e) decoration. Gift of Dr. Joseph Kushner, 2014.6. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Asian Art Museum Art Speak interns have a conversation with artist and animator Sanjay Patel.

In the Snow at Tsukahara on Sado Island (Sashu Tsukahara setchu) from The Illustrated and Abridged Biography of the Founder [Nichiren] (Koso goichidai ryakuzu), by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797-1861). Japan. Woodblock print; ink and colors on paper. Gift of the Grabhorn Ukiyo-e Collection, 2005.100.118.

Students will: 1.) Observe and discuss how artist Santiago Bose uses cultural symbols and artistic methods as post-colonial critique. 2.) Create an assemblage using found objects that conveys their personal identities. 3.) Interview a family member to uncover a photograph or symbol that recalls their heritage and include this in their assemblages. 4.) Write a first person narrative telling a story about their assemblages.

The Hindu deity Durga victorious over the buffalo demon, 1000–1100. India; Tamil Nadu state. Granite. The Avery Brundage Collection, B64S10.

The Hindu Deities Shiva and Parvati, 1000-1100. Cambodia; former Kingdom of Angkor. Sandstone. The Avery Brundage Collection, B66S2 and B66S3.

Himeji Castle is among the finest surviving examples of the defensive structures built in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as samurai strongholds and symbols of power. Learn more.

Hexagonal vase with phoenixes, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Reign of the Longqing Emperor (1567–1572). China; Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt and overglaze monochrome decoration. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60P2349.