Pictured is a detail from the six-panel screen showing scenes from "The Tale of Genji."

Art by and about Asian women featured in gallery's display

Images of Asian women -- and art created by Asian women who broke through societal boundaries -- are featured in a new exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery. "Female Images, Female Lives in Asian Art" comprises more than 60 works that include selections from the permanent collection along with several loans of noted works from private collectors. Organized by David Sensabaugh, curator of Asian art, and Sadako Ohki, assistant curator of Asian art, the exhibit will be on view through April 16. Four themes are explored in the exhibition: female deities, women at work and play, early artistic images by women, and women crossing boundaries. Two recently acquired figures of female deities are among the items on view in the first section of the exhibition. These mold-impressed figures of females, known as Yakshi, date from the Shunga Period (second to first century B.C.) and are associated with fertility and abundance. A fragment of a painted banner dating from the ninth century depicts Sri Maha-devi, or Laksmi, the Indian female deity of wealth, virtue and beauty, who, like Yakshi, was incorporated into Buddhism. Several other Buddhist images show the transformation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin) into the female appearance he was given in East Asia. Women are primarily represented at work and play by Chinese tomb figurines meant to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. Among the items on view in this section are ceramic sculptures of women as acrobats, dancers, musicians and even polo players. These date from the Western Han (206 B.C.-9 A.D.) through the Tang dynasties (618-907) -- before the practice of foot binding confined women to "inner quarters," according to Sensabaugh. "It is significant that the Tang period also witnessed the only 'woman emperor' in Chinese history," he says. Women were often well educated in Chinese and Japanese society, says Sensabaugh. They painted, composed poetry and prose and were refined calligraphers, he notes. Japanese women of the late Heian (897-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) periods were known for their calligraphy, examples of which are featured in the third section of the exhibition. These include calligraphy by a 13th-century Buddhist nun and a pair of 17th-century screens depicting scenes from the novel "The Tale of Genji," by Lady Murasaki, the most famous court lady of the late Heian period, according to Sensabaugh. The novel, he says, is possibly the earliest in world literature and is certainly the first written by a woman. Several of the works featured in the exhibition are the result of wife-and-husband collaborations. Among these are Ying Quan's painting of orchids with calligraphy by her husband, Tie Bao, and Ikeno Gyokuran's landscape fan painting and a work of calligraphy she created with her husband, the 18th-century Japanese literati painter Ikeno Taiga. The third section of the exhibit also includes a large hanging scroll portraying a woman by the female artist Kawasaki Ranko (1882-1918), created during the 20th century when more women were involved in making art. In the final section of the exhibition, on the theme of women crossing boundaries, are works by internationally recognized women artists. The impetus for the exhibition is an interdisciplinary conference on the topic "Female Images, Female Lives," which is being organized by graduate students in the Department of East Asian Studies and will take place Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25 and 26. For information on the Yale Art Gallery's hours and programs, call (203) 432-0600. 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