Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 12, 2001Volume 29, Number 15



This work in glazed porcelain, titled "View of Distant Sea II," is one of the items on view in "Ancients and Moderns: Tradition and Transformation in the Arts of Asia." It was created by Japanese artist Fukami Sueharu.



Exhibit explores how the past serves
as inspiration for contemporary Asian artists

An exhibition exploring the ways that the past has been a source of inspiration for Asian artists in a variety of media will open this month at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Titled "Ancients and Moderns: Tradition and Transformation in the Arts of Asia," the exhibition will be presented in two parts. The first will be on display Jan. 16-April 1; the second will be on view April 17-Sept. 2.

"A return to the past as a means of renewal is a phenomenon of Chinese art," says David A. Sensabaugh, curator of Asian art, who, with assistant curator Sadako Ohki, organized the exhibition.

To illustrate this theme, the organizers have grouped artworks with the historic pieces that inspired them. At the entrance to the exhibit, visitors can see that the calligraphy on a pair of contemporary scrolls is the same seal script found on the lid of an eighth-century bronze vessel, and the shape of Chinese Neolithic and Bronze Age beakers recurs in 18th-century ceramic beakers.

The show also features works by Chinese painters of the Orthodox School in the 17th and 18th centuries, who sought to work with styles of the past to create something new in the present. The works on display at the gallery were modeled on masterpieces of the 11th through 14th centuries. One work in this group is a forgery of an even earlier eighth-century painting.

In another section of the exhibition, visitors can follow the direct response of recent or contemporary Japanese potters to Japanese ceramics of the Neolithic and later periods. The show features ancient and modern storage jars that were created in the same Shigaraki area kilns. In fact, explain the curators, Japanese artists have been so keen to reproduce the effects of earlier art that they incorporated accidental burn marks on early pieces into their own creations -- as is the case with two ceramic vessels in the show. Among the other 20th-century pieces is an earthenware vessel, with the glaze and texture of an ancient piece, in the shape of a tin can with the lid partially pried off. Another is a brilliantly colored ceramic box in the shape of a folded napkin.

The works in the exhibition are drawn primarily from the Yale Art Gallery's permanent collection of Asian art, to which Molly and Walter Bareiss '40S B.S. have made numerous gifts. The Bareisses and Peggy and Richard Danziger '63 L.L.B. have also made generous loans to the exhibition.

The Yale University Art Gallery, located at the corner of Chapel and York streets, exhibits a permanent collection from every period in the history of art, with special changing exhibitions throughout the year. Admission is free for individuals; groups should call (203) 432-8459 for information about fees and to make a reservation.

Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m, Sunday 1-6 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and major holidays. An entrance for persons using wheelchairs is at 201 York St., with an unmetered parking space nearby on York Street. For information, call (203) 432-0606. For recorded general and program information, call (203) 432-0600, or visit the gallery's website at www.yale.edu/artgallery.


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