This volume gathers together, for the first time, a group of 121 Japanese Buddhist textiles dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, housed in the Baur Foundation, the Museum of far Eastern Art, in Geneva. This is the twelfth in a series of volumes documenting the Asian art collections of Alfred Baur (1865-1951) housed in the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, in Geneva. It gathers together for the first time a group of 121 Japanese Buddhist textiles dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, bought by Alfred Baur in 1927. The assemblage differs from similar collections in the West in not featuring any examples of kimonos or the kesa costume worn by monks, concentrating instead on a type of textile that is not very well-known outside Japan: the uchishiki, fabrics designed to cover temple altars. In spite of their small size, these cloths provide an important insight into the religious practices of the period, as well as being testaments to the extraordinary skill of the Kyoto weavers. Like the kesa, they were made from lengths of sumptuous silk donated to a temple by the faithful. With their elaborate polychrome decoration, highlighted by gold or silver thread, they are exemplars of the most intricate and luxurious weaving and give tangible expression to the extent of the donor's faith. Detailed notes are preceded by introductory discussions of the history of silk weaving in Japan and the techniques and decorative motifs used, complete with glossary and bibliography. Text in English and French.

The study of South Asian Art requires not only expert knowledge of an art historian, but also sound philological proficiency and cultural competence of an Indologist. This calls for a close co-operation of specialists in both fields. The present volume of interdisciplinary character is just this: a solid exemplification of this vital principle. The volume presents a collection of stimulating and inspiring papers linked by a common theme which incorporates various aspects of art, religion, myths, parables, symbols, literature and visual culture of the region of South Asia. The researchers interests go, in certain aspects, far beyond the geographical boundaries of South Asia and reach out to South-East Asia and even to Europe and Far East, revealing close cultural linkages and influences. The collection offers an entirely new material which explores a range of important motives and themes concerned with the art and visual culture of the region of South Asia, and partially with South-East Asia. The authors examine a wide range of aspects of South Asian art, including sculpture, painting and decorative art, related to religious practice, temple consecration rituals, mythology and cult, eroticism, politics and power as well as the history and spread of artistic and mythological motives from South Asia to other parts of the world.

Made in the Americas reveals the largely overlooked history of the profound influence of Asia on the arts of the colonial Americas. Beginning in the 16th century, European outposts in the New World, especially those in New Spain, became a major nexus of the Asia export trade. Craftsmen from Canada to Peru, inspired by the sophisticated designs and advanced techniques of these imported goods, combined Asian styles with local traditions to produce unparalleled furniture, silverwork, textiles, ceramics, lacquer, painting, and architectural ornaments. Among the exquisite objects featured in this book, from across the hemisphere and spanning the 17th to the early 19th centuries, are folding screens made in Mexico, in imitation of imported Japanese and Chinese screens; blue-and-white talavera ceramics copied from Chinese porcelains; luxuriously woven textiles, made to replicate fine silks and cottons from China and India; devotional statues that adapt Buddhist gods into Christian saints; and japanned furniture produced in Boston that simulates Asian lacquer finishes. The stories these objects tell, compellingly related by leading art historians, bring to life the rich cultural interchange and the spectacular arts of the first global age.

Ambient Media examines music, video art, film, and literature as tools of atmospheric design in contemporary Japan, and what it means to use media as a resource for personal mood regulation. Paul Roquet traces the emergence of ambient styles from the environmental music and Erik Satie boom of the 1960s and 1970s to the more recent therapeutic emphasis on healing and relaxation. Focusing on how an atmosphere works to reshape those dwelling within it, Roquet shows how ambient aesthetics can provide affordances for reflective drift, rhythmic attunement, embodied security, and urban coexistence. Musicians, video artists, filmmakers, and novelists in Japan have expanded on Brian Eno's notion of the ambient as a style generating "calm, and a space to think," exploring what it means to cultivate an ambivalent tranquility set against the uncertain horizons of an ever-shifting social landscape. Offering a new way of understanding the emphasis on "reading the air" in Japanese culture, Ambient Media documents both the adaptive and the alarming sides of the increasing deployment of mediated moods. Arguing against critiques of mood regulation that see it primarily as a form of social pacification, Roquet makes a case for understanding ambient media as a neoliberal response to older modes of collective attunement-one that enables the indirect shaping of social behavior while also allowing individuals to feel like they are the ones ultimately in control.

Spanning seven centuries, this selection of fifty iconic paintings offers readers a crash course in art history while presenting gorgeous color reproductions that are a pleasure to contemplate. Starting with Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes and continuing through Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, as well as works by Monet, van Gogh, Cassatt, Cezanne, Dali, Kahlo, Hopper, Pollock, Rothko, and O'Keeffe, nearly every important painter is represented in this book. It features works that may be familiar to the eye, but whose histories are even more fascinating. Readers will learn about the painters who created them, the reasons for their importance and the places the paintings can be found. As entertaining as it is informative, this beautiful book is the perfect introduction to great paintings that have stood the test of time.

From personal ornamentation to funerary practice, from palace decoration to private devotion, jade has played a major role in Chinese social, cultural, and political life for millennia. Exploring the history of this revered stone through the esteemed Grenville L. Winthrop Collection at the Harvard Art Museums-which includes some of the finest examples of ancient and archaizing jades outside China-this volume explains how and why jade developed its special significance. In-depth entries on over one hundred objects present recent archaeological discoveries and new information garnered from conservation analysis, while Jenny So's broad and engaging narrative not only elucidates the layered meanings of the objects and their iconography but also delves into the unique qualities of the material and the craftsmanship involved in quarrying and working jade.

This volume accompanies the international traveling exhibition FOOD, that focuses on the preservation of Earth and food choices, as well as the effects of climate change, the poisoning of agricultural products, the food distribution gap, famine and other related concerns. FOOD includes artworks by international artists exploring the question of food, a highly complex issue simultaneously dealing with survival, health, economy and culture.

One of the great conceptual artists of the twenty-first century, Terry Adkins (1953-2014) was renowned for his pioneering work across mediums, from sculpture, drawing, and site-specific installation to photography, video, and performance. Terry Adkins: Infinity is Always Less Than One accompanies the first institutional posthumous exhibition of Adkins's sculptural production. While Adkins is often recognized for his musical and performative practice, this exhibition focuses on his complex memorials and monuments to historical figures. The exhibition showcases four of his major series, dedicated to four distinct figures: Bessie Smith, John Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jimi Hendrix. These series are presented alongside a group of early sculptures to reveal the development of the Adkins's mature practice. The exhibition highlights Adkins's crucial contributions to sculpture and to cultural protest, featuring major works that have not been viewed in decades. It explores significant periods and influences in Adkins's career, beginning with transitional hand-wrought sculptures and continuing with his major immersive installations. His often elegiac and always resonant objects challenge dominant historical narratives and prompt a rethinking of ways of being and moving in the world that are shaped by the legacies of displacement and the sociability and community that happen despite it. Adkins's work also enlarges the historical legacies of the postwar avant-garde while reminding us of the immaterial legacies that are passed on through ritual and sound. Contributors. Alex Gartenfeld, Kobena Mercer, Gean Moreno, Nizan Shaked, and Greg Tate A Publication of ICA Miami Distributed by Duke University Press

In this richly illustrated volume Rosa Giorgi argues that because much of Western art depicts key events, leaders, and practices in the history of the Christian Church, knowledge of that history is critical to an appreciation of many of our great masterpieces.
Giorgi begins by analyzing artistic representations of liturgical objects, including altars, crosses, and censers, and follows with an examination of the duties and vestments of the variety of clerics, ranging from minor clerks to the pope. Both the rituals of the monastic life and worshippers' devotional practices are well documented in paintings depicting prayer, communal meals, funeral rites, religious processions, and cult practices.
The author next turns to artworks that capture important episodes from the Church's history, including crusades and pilgrimages, the Inquisition and the Reformation, and power struggles between popes and rulers. Giorgi ends with an analysis of the lives and portraits of the notable leaders who made this fascinating history, from Peter and Paul to Thomas More to Pope Paul VI.

Explore the history and tradition of Wabanaki art.

This volume commemorates a new exhibition of Burmese artifacts at the Musee Guimet in Paris and showcases the vibrant art and manuscript traditions of Myanmar. The central pieces displayed in the exhibition were three richly illustrated manuscripts called parabaiks. These vivid paintings, which show lively festivals and the pageantry of daily religious and courtly life, are a window into the culture and customs of nineteenth-century Burma. Also in the exhibition were a number of other manuscripts, inscriptions, diagrams, and even an ornate wooden model of a traditional Burmese monastery. The accompanying essays--translated from the original French exhibition booklet--explore complexities of the Burmese language, manuscript production, and background of the exhibited items as well as explaining the festivities and other spirited scenes illustrated in the parabaiks.

The "Handbook of Iconometry" (Tibetan title: Cha tshad kyi dpe ris Dpyod ldan yid gsos) constitutes a lavishly illustrated treatise laying down the iconometic principles and measurements at the heart of the 17th-century art of Tibet. The book was produced in ca. 1687 at the instigation of the famous scholar and statesman sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho (1653 1705). Today, the original is kept in the Tibet Autonomous Region Archives (Lhasa). The "Handbook" includes more than 150 meticulously prepared drawings of buddhas, bodhisattvas and divinities, 70 script types and 14 stupa models all extrapolated from the rich heritage of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist art. These are accompanied by an introduction charting the production of the Handbook in the 17th century and the scholarly profile of its principal author Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. In the appendix, it reproduces passages from the Vai urya g.Ya' sel that provide valuable additional information about the illustrations.

"An excellent reference work on the subject." Library Journal (starred review) For fans, culture watchers, and perplexed outsiders, this expanded edition offers an engaging tour of the anime megaverse, from older artistic traditions to the works of modern creators like Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon, and CLAMP. Examined are all of anime's major themes, styles, and conventions, plus the familiar tropes of giant robots, samurai, furry beasts, high school heroines, and gay/girl/fanboy love. Concluding are fifteen essays on favorite anime, including Evangelion, Escaflowne, Sailor Moon, Patlabor, and Fullmetal Alchemist. Patrick Drazen is an anime historian who lives in Bloomington Normal, Illinois.

Once seen as a collection of artifacts and ritual objects, African art now commands respect from museums and collectors. Bennetta Jules-Rosette and J.R. Osborn explore the reframing of African art through case studies of museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Africa. The authors take a three-pronged approach. Part One ranges from curiosity cabinets to virtual websites to offer a history of ethnographic and art museums and look at their organization and methods of reaching out to the public. In the second part, the authors examine museums as ecosystems and communities within communities, and they use semiotic methods to analyze images, signs, and symbols drawn from the experiences of curators and artists. The third part introduces innovative strategies for displaying, disseminating, and reclaiming African art. The authors also propose how to reinterpret the art inside and outside the museum and show ways of remixing the results. Drawing on extensive conversations with curators, collectors, and artists, African Art Reframed is an essential guide to building new exchanges and connections in the dynamic worlds of African and global art.

These fine-quality tear-out sheets feature 12 Asian-inspired prints, suitable for craft projects as well as for gift wrapping. The shimmering silver color is highlighted throughout, used in contrast with dramatic black and classic white, with pops of pink for an element of fun. The variety of papers means they are useful for any occasion-whether a holiday, birthday, anniversary or "just because." An introduction details the history and meaning behind the designs, giving you a better idea of their origin. Some wrapping ideas are also provided for inspiration to maximize your creativity. This book includes: 12 sheets of 18 x 24 inch (45 x 61 cm) tear-out paper 12 unique patterns Perforations so the papers are easy to tear out Wrapping tips & tricks The tradition of gift wrapping originated in Asia, with the first documented use in China in the 2nd century BC. Japanese furoshiki, reusable wrapping cloth, is still in use four centuries after it was first created. Gift wrapping is one custom that has prevailed through the ages and across the world-it should be special for both the gift giver and recipient.

Named after an archaeological site discovered in 1951 in Zhengzhou, China, the Erligang civilization arose in the Yellow River valley around the middle of the second millennium BCE. Shortly thereafter, its distinctive elite material culture spread to a large part of China's Central Plain, in the south reaching as far as the banks of the Yangzi River. The Erligang culture is best known for the remains of an immense walled city at Zhengzhou, a smaller site at Panlongcheng in Hubei, and a large-scale bronze industry of remarkable artistic and technological sophistication.

This richly illustrated book is the first in a western language devoted to the Erligang culture. It brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, including art history and archaeology, to explore what is known about the culture and its spectacular bronze industry. The opening chapters introduce the history of the discovery of the culture and its most important archaeological sites. Subsequent essays address a variety of important methodological issues related to the study of Erligang, including how to define the culture, the usefulness of cross-cultural comparative study, and the difficulty of reconciling traditional Chinese historiography with archaeological discoveries. The book closes by examining the role the Erligang civilization played in the emergence of the first bronze-using societies in south China and the importance of bronze studies in the training of Chinese art historians.

The contributors are Robert Bagley, John Baines, Maggie Bickford, Rod Campbell, Li Yung-ti, Robin McNeal, Kyle Steinke, Wang Haicheng, and Zhang Changping.

This comprehensive view of carvings and paintings on stone by Native Americans from 200 B.C. through the nineteenth century surveys the rock art of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, northern Mexico, and west Texas, providing an incomparable visual record of Southwest Indian culture, religion, and society.

Rock carvings and paintings are important sources in the archaeological and historical interpretation of Southwest Indians. Rock art reflects the cosmic and mythic orientation of the culture that produced it, and understanding of prehistoric peoples, both hunters and gatherers and the Hohokam, Anasazi, Mogollon, and Fremont cultures, and the Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache Indians. Culturally significant events such as the shift in prehistoric times from spear and atlatl to the bow, or, in the historic period, the introduction of the horse into the Southwest, are recorded in rock art.

The illustrations--thirty-two color plates, nearly 250 photographs, and numerous line drawings--bring together in one volume petroglyphs and rock paintings that are scattered over thousands of miles of desert and mesa, giving the reader an overview of Indian rock art that would be nearly impossible to achieve in the field.

"Indian Rock Art of the Southwest" examines from an archaeological perspective the rich legacy of stone drawings and carvings preserved throughout the Southwest. Professional and amateur archaeologists and historians, as well as the general reader with an interest in Indian art, will find this volume a valuable resource.

This collection explores the creative responses of artists to the legacies of war, colonialism, genocide and oppression. Based on a major project of international collaboration supported by the European Science Foundation, it brings together professional art practices, art history and visual culture studies, social anthropology, literary studies, history, museology and cultural policy studies. Case studies are drawn from diverse contexts, including South Africa, Germany, Namibia, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Poland, Norway, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Australia. The results reveal a courageous and carefully examined global picture, with a variety of new approaches to confronting dominant historical narratives and shaping alternative interpretations. -- .

More than 125 vivid color photographs display Indian-made wrought silver, turquoise, shell and coral jewelry brought together from the American Southwest's bright deserts, red canyon and timeless pueblos. The authors explore the diversity of this hand-crafted jewelry from historic collections as well as those available today on reservations and in shops and galleries. They explain the heritage conveyed by these distinctive products of Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Rio Grande Pueblo artisans.

From the 1860s through to the early 20th century the rise of Japonisme and the Art Nouveau movement meant that few could ignore or resist the obsession with all things Japanese. Superbly crafted and often highly decorated Japanese objects - lacquer, metalwork, ceramics, enamels and other decorative items - excited, stimulated and inspired Western artists and craftsmen to produce their own works. Arts of the Meiji period (1868-1912) were displayed at international exhibitions, galleries of influential dealers and at fashionable stores in London, Paris and Vienna. This book includes many examples of the superlatively designed and executed decorative arts of the Meiji periods from the Khalili Collection, the greatest collection of Meiji period art in the world. Artists such as Van Gogh, Whistler, Monet, Manet, Klimt and Schiele were all, to varying degrees, influenced by the arts of Japan. Van Gogh said that he owed his inspiration to Japanese art, but even he was probably not aware of just how much art in Europe had already been greatly influenced by that of Japan.

Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll features over 250 unique photographs as well as extensive commentary and background history. Japanese dolls (ningyo) have played an important role in Japanese art and culture since its earliest stages of development, as talismanic figures, centerpieces, in elaborate festivals, medical study tools, theater distractions, decorative objects, and avidly collected art forms, as well as childhood playthings. Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll is the most comprehensive book on antique Japanese dolls and figurines published in English. The book focuses on the many types of Japanese dolls: gosho: palace dolls hina: Girl's Day dolls musha: warrior dolls for the Boy's Day Festival isho: fashion dolls The principal forms of the dolls and their history, stylistic development, cultural context, and economic imperatives are discussed against the backdrop of Edo-period society and popular culture. Beautifully detailed color photographs of ningyo drawn from private collections, many of which are published here for the first time, as well as images of related materials selected from celebrated museums and temple collections, such as folding screens, woodblock prints, sculpture, painting ceramics, and textiles, help place the dolls in context. Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll is a fascinating book for anyone interested in Asian doll art and doll collecting.

Despite China's long tradition of venerating the past as the ultimate source of cultural authority, the discourse of antiquity prior to the Song period (960-1279) demonstrated little concern for ancient objects. With a focus on physical artifacts of the past, Song intellectuals began a new discipline, "the study of bronze and stone" (jinshixue), that generated collections of items such as bronze vessels and bells, stone steles, and ink rubbings of inscriptions carved or cast on objects. This first comprehensive study in English of the Song antiquarian movement and how it refashioned the distant past uses textual and material evidence to examine this development, which has had long-lasting influence on Chinese intellectual history and on the preservation of material objects. In addition to collecting and comparing artifacts, Song antiquaries compiled extensive catalogs that included drawings, measurements, and meticulous descriptions. Their studies have contributed to the way history has been documented since the eleventh century and serve as a basis for archaeology of the modern period. Bronze and Stone contextualizes the Song antiquarian movement among previous Chinese engagements with antiquity, subsequent popular interest in ancient objects, and world antiquarianism.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which has aroused great curiosity since plans were first announced for the groundbreaking museum in 2007, will unveil a selected part of its nascent collection in April 2013. While the building that will house the museum collection, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, is already well- known, this book -the first to be dedicated to the museum's collection - allows the reader to discover the universal spirit that permeates and incarnates the birth of this new museum. The growing collection, presented here for the first time, best captures and expresses the essence and spirit of the museum itself. These 300 works, reproduced in exceptionally high-quality photographs commissioned for the publication, open a dialogue between the diverse world cultures and their artistic expressions, from the most antiquated to the ultra contemporary, ranging from archaeological treasures to groundbreaking works of contemporary art. All artistic traditions are present, from Ancient Egypt and Greco-Roman art to Islamic art and grand Asian statuary, from works by Bellini and Murillo to Manet or Mondrian, and masterpieces from the European Renaissance or an Art Deco ensemble, to Indian miniatures or paintings by Yan Pei-Ming. The works are analyzed in their cultural context, highlighting their particularities, while simultaneously placing them at the crossroads of the great cultures that comprise the museum's collections.