Chinese Studies, American Studies, Asian Studies, Art History

Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of Chinese Art

Lefebvre d'Argence, Rene-Yvon (editor)

Asian Art Museum

Exquisite Pursuits: Japanese Art in the Harry G.C. Packard Collection

In 1991 the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco formally accessioned twenty-seven unique works of Japanese art spanning 800 years of Japanese culture, from the late 11th through the mid-19th centuries. In this catalogue, each work is presented in its historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts. Photos are augmented by enlarged details and supplemental illustrations for comparison. The collection includes thirteen religious objects from the Heian through Muromachi periods, and fourteen secular objects mainly of the Edo periods. It encompasses culptures, paintings, calligraphy, and scrolls.

Arts & Photography

Mellott, Richard

Woodson, Yoko

History & Criticism

Containing hundreds of the Asian Art Museums finest paintings, sculptures, jewelry, textile and furniture, this art book is an informative guide to one of the world's greatest collections. The character of the art in this book is broad, inventive, original, and stunning in its compass. For the arts of Asia are as vast as humankind, and as complex and remarkable. While they conform to little of what Western artists know or knew, these arts are born of grand traditions, nurtured talents, and splendid ideas. The arts of Asia originate in the largest of Earth's continents and represent the oldest continuum of civilized activity in this world. This book presents a selection by the curators of the highlights of the Asian Art Museum collections. It is, therefore an introduction to the subject, but it is also an invitation for the reader to investigate further, to visit the museum, and to see at first hand the arrayed masterworks of Asian art installed in the galleries.

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco: Selected Works

This book highlights the Chinese glass collections of Mr. and Mrs. Barney Dagan, Dr. Alan E. Feen, and Walter and Phyllis Shorenstein. Together these collections provide a rare opportunity to comprehend the range and depth of Chinese work in glass. Through the 103 examples of glasswork included in this book the history of Chinese glass artistry comes into focus as never before.

A Chorus of Colors: Chinese Glass from Three American CollectionsRoyall Tyler

Brown, Claudia

Rabiner, Donald

Shangraw, Clarence F.

Showcasing forty-four superb examples of Chinese furniture from the sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries selected from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, this special exhibition emphasizes the aesthetic and technical concerns reflected in late Ming and early Qing decorative arts while exploring wider issues of use and social status. Made of rare hardwoods or lacquered softwoods, the remarkable examples on display include a variety of chairs, tables, beds, and cabinetry--all handcrafted by highly skilled artisans for the era's most sophisticated and aristocratic classes.

Essence of Style: Chinese Furniture of the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

Ellsworth, Robert Hatfield

Et All

Grindley, Nicholas

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Bridge to Understanding, highlights hundreds of the finest Asian paintings, sculptures, and textiles from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco as well as the architecture of the new building itself. In the spring of 2003 the Asian Art Muesum—home to one of the world's most significant collections of Asian art—moved into a historic building, reconfigured by the renowned architect Gae Aulenti, in the dynamic heart of San Francisco. The occasion is an important event not only for the institution but also for the city, which now more than ever may serve as a bridge between East and West. Celebrating the museum's stunning new home, Bridge to Understanding showcases both the beauty of the building and the depth of the collection, highlighting many treasures that could not previously be displayed. Exploring the museum's role in promoting cross-cultural understanding, the text interweaves the history of the museum with the history of the city. it delves into the development, construction, and renovation of the building, which retains such historic features as a monumental beaux arts staircase, while adding a dramatic indoor / outdoor escalator, a new third level, and signature V-shaped skylights that illuminate an indoor courtyard designed by the architect on the model of an Italian piazza. Featuring a full-color gallery of Asian masterworks from the museum's collection, Bridge to Understanding confirms the museum's significance as one of the foremost institutions of Asian art in the world.

Bridge to Understanding: The Art and Architecture of San Francisco's Asian Art Museum - Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture

Christensen, Thomas

Containing over 100 photos of Korean art pieces along with thoughtful essays, Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment 918-1392 captures this fundamental period of Korean history. Few people are aware that the name Korea is derived from Goryeo of the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392). Under the patronage of the royal court, the aristocracy and the Buddhist elite—whose taste are for luxury and refinement was unprecedented in the history of Korea—spectacular achievements were made in all areas of the arts during this period. This catalogue documents not only the famous Goryeo achievements in ceramics but also lesser known Buddhist paintings, illuminated sutras, sculpture, lacquer, and metal crafts. Drawing from thirty-five contributing institutions, it brings together some of the most exquisite works of Korean art from the tenth to the fourteenth century, including many that have never before traveled to the West. A valuable resource to anyone interested in the classic arts of East Asia.

Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392

Kim, Kumja Paik

Some view contemporary art and traditional art as alien entities facing each other across an unbridgeable divide. But what does it mean to be a "contemporary artist"? Is it possible to be contemporary while working in a traditional manner? These questions as they relate to the contemporary scene in China are explored in this catalogue of a special exhibition featuring 34 large-scale paintings by Li Huayi, an artist born and raised in China, and currently residing in Shanghai and San Francisco. Many of the works in this exhibition could, on first view, be mistaken for traditional Chinese paintings such as those from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1126). On closer inspection, however, the viewer discovers the technical innovations and personal expression that the artist has brought to this tradition. For Li Huayi is expressly not an artist who is seeking to imitate or reproduce works from the past but rather one who uses tradition to create new works that speak to our time.

Monumental Landscapes of Li Huayi

Michael Knight

Li Huayi

In 1686 King Louis XIV of France had the great Hall of Mirrors in Versailles specially prepared to receive, with exceptional pomp and ceremony, a group of foreign envoys. The envoys brought with them two shiploads of gifts for the court. In fact they delivered so many objects of gold, silver, and lacquer the French complained that their list would be as long as a book. The envoys had been sent from the kingdom of Ayutthaya, or "Siam," as it was know in the West. Though little remembered today, Ayutthaya was one of the largest and most important kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The Kingdom of Siam: The Art of Central Tahiland, 1350û1800 documents the first U.S. exhibition of classical art from Thailand in more than thirty years. It collects eighty-nine of the finest surviving works from Ayutthaya; drawn from collections in Thailand, Europe, and the United States, many of these are being displayed for the first time in the West. The catalogue, prepared under the primary direction of Forrest McGill, chief curator of the Asian Art Museum, is not only a work of exceptional scholarship but also the fascinating story of a once-glorious culture that until now had been almost entirely lost in the mists of time.

Kingdom of Siam: The Art of Central Thailand, 1350-1800

Chirapravati, M.L. Pattaratorn

McGill, Forrest

Sui Jianguo: The Sleep of Reason

Jeff Kelley

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Books by Asian Art Museum