#artsofchina

This masterpiece of Chinese porcelain is an important example of early blue-and-white ware from the imperially sponsored kilns of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province. Four fish—mackerel, whitefish, carp, and freshwater perch—are depicted swimming along the hip of the vessel; their Chinese names form a rebus for the phrase “honest and incorruptible” (qingbai lianjie). The visual wordplay suggests that the jar may have been made for an elite clientele who, it was hoped, would be inspired by the rebus’s message of rectitude while drinking their wine. The twisting leaves and stems of the eelgrass, blossoming lotuses, and other flora elegantly frame the fish and evoke the teeming pulse of the ocean. The mineral cobalt for the rich blue color was imported from western Asian sources, and similar porcelains were often made for the Middle Eastern export market.

This painting was created by Xu Bing specifically for the Brooklyn Museum’s new galleries for the Arts of China. The painting reads from left to right, following English word order, and from top to bottom in columns, as in traditional Chinese texts. It also includes an artist’s seal using Square Word Calligraphy, in red ink. The work is composed of a title and colophon, followed by the first verse of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” by the poet Walt Whitman. It reads:

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, By Walt Whitman Calligraphy by Xu Bing An artist who used to live in Brooklyn. Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face! Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face. Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me! On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose, And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.

The Brooklyn Museum began its focused collecting of Chinese art in 1909, when it received a gift of one of the most important collections of cloisonné outside of China. Over the course of more than a century the Museum has amassed a collection of nearly 1,000 objects spanning more than 5,000 years that reveals the diversity of Chinese art and culture. 

See them on view in our newly reopened Arts of Asia galleries.

On October 24, celebrate the reopening of our Arts of China galleries with a conversation between artists Bingyi, Zheng Chongbin, and Sun Xun on how they engage with pre-modern Chinese artistic traditions to address climate change, global media, and cultural memory. 

Click here for tickets (Members, remember yours are complimentary)!⁠

Today marks the official reopening of our Arts of Asia galleries, featuring both ancient and contemporary Chinese and Japanese art works. Continue your exploration into Asian artistic excellence with One: Xu Bing, a spotlight exhibition highlighting Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman, by one of China’s most important living artists. Created specifically for the Museum, the work celebrates Xu Bing's close relationship with Brooklyn and pays homage to the famous Brooklyn poet Walt Whitman.⁠ 

Raise your hand if you've checked out our new Arts of Asia galleries! 

This fierce, armor-clad Lokapala or Heavenly King (tian wang) would have served as a Buddhist guardian of the four cardinal directions, protecting both the dharma (teachings of the Buddha) and the religious community. During the Tang dynasty, such protectors were often portrayed with non-Han facial features, reflecting the import of Buddhism into China as a foreign religion, introduced by foreign monks and merchants who brought new⁠ ideas, technologies, and religions across the ancient⁠ trading routes. 

Following a multiyear renovation and the reopening of the Arts of Korea collection, we're pleased to unveil two new galleries highlighting its important and diverse collection of works from China and Japan. Opening on October 25, the Arts of China and Arts of Japan galleries will feature masterworks as well as rarely seen or never-before-shown treasures from the Brooklyn Museum’s Asian Art collection. Both galleries will also highlight new acquisitions and contemporary works, connecting centuries of artistic practice through common themes and mediums. 

Upcoming Shows Through January 2020

We’re pleased to announce our advance schedule of exhibitions through January 2020, including a retrospective featuring the futurist fashion of Pierre Cardin; a solo presentation of work by internationally recognized artist JR; and the reinstallation of the Museum's Arts of Japan and China collections. In addition, and in collaboration with the Château de Malmaiso, France, in January 2020 the iconic Kehinde Wiley painting from the Brooklyn Museum's collection—Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps (2005)—will be on view in dialogue with its early nineteenth-century source painting, Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1800-1801).

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion 

July 20, 2019-January 5, 2020 Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantory Gallery, 5th Floor

The retrospective exhibition Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion traces the legendary career of one of the fashion world's most innovative designers, one whose futuristic designs and trailblazing efforts to democratize high fashion for the masses pushed the boundaries of the industry for more than seven decades. Featuring over 170 objects that date from the 1950s to the present, the exhibition includes haute couture and ready-to-wear garments, accessories, photographs, film, and other materials drawn primarily from the Pierre Cardin archive. Highlights range across rare designs in luxury fabrics from the 1950s; a large grouping from the landmark 1964 "Cosmocorps" collection; creations that incorporate vinyls, plastics, and the self-named "Cardine" synthetic fabric; signature unisex ensembles featuring full knit bodysuits with layered skirts, vests, bibs, and jewelry; iconic broad-shouldered jackets from the 1980s based on Japanese origami, Chinese architecture, and American football uniforms; "illuminated" jumpsuits and dresses; and an extensive overview of Cardin's recently designed couture menswear and eveningwear. The exhibition reveals how the designer's bold, futuristic aesthetic had a pervasive influence not only on fashion, but on other forms of design that extended beyond clothing to furniture, industrial design, and more.

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion is curated and designed by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum. Leadership support for this exhibition is provided by Chargeurs.

Terry O'Neill (British, born 1938). Raquel Welch in a Pierre Cardin outfit featuring a miniskirt and necklace in blue vinyl, worn with a Plexiglas visor, 1970. Image courtesy of Iconic Images. © Terry O'Neill / Iconic Images

JR: Chronicles October 4, 2019-May 3, 2020 Great Hall, 1st Floor

We’re pleased to present JR: Chronicles, the French artist's largest solo museum exhibition to date. The presentation covers nearly 20,000 square feet of our Great Hall and traces JR's artistic evolution since 2001, focusing on his commitment to community and civic discourse through the use of large-scale media such as news and advertising as well as architectural interventions. Working at the intersections of photography, social practice, and street art, JR's participatory projects have fostered collaborations and conversations around the globe. The exhibition centers on The Chronicles of New York City, a new monumental mural incorporating the portraits and stories of over one thousand New Yorkers. The immersive installation also features JR's most well-known works across photography, installation, film, and video from the past fifteen years, including his first major collaborative project, Portrait of a Generation (2004-6); Face 2 Face (2007), which features giant portrait diptychs of Israelis and Palestinians, face to face, in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities; Women Are Heroes (2008-9), featuring images of the eyes of women gazing back at their communities in numerous countries, including Brazil, India, and Kenya; the global participatory art project Inside Out (2011-ongoing); and The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America (2018), a video mural that gives a face to the full and complex spectrum of views on guns in the United States.

JR: Chronicles is curated by Sharon Matt Atkins, Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum.

JR (French, born 1983). The Chronicles of New York City (detail), 2018-19. Dimensions variable. © JR-ART.NET

Arts of China Opens October 25, 2019 Arts of Asia and the Middle East, 2nd Floor

Our comprehensive collection of Chinese art spans more than five thousand years of Chinese artistic accomplishment, and boasts a diversity of art forms including jades, bronzes, lacquer, sculpture, painting, and calligraphy. This fall, we open our newly reinstalled galleries for our renowned Arts of China collection, featuring recent acquisitions, new commissions, and rarely seen historical treasures. Our large collection of cloisonné enamels, many from the Chinese imperial collection, are featured, along with masterpieces of bronze such as a Shang dynasty ritual vessel (gong) and a Han dynasty goose. Also on view are a selection of ceramics, including our world-famous Yuan dynasty Wine Jar with Fish and Aquatic Plants, widely acknowledged to be one of the finest blue-and-white porcelains in the Western hemisphere. Since 2014, we have worked to expand our holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture by Chinese artists, culminating in the acquisition of over fifty works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including new commissions that spark dialogue with objects from our historical collection. Highlights include experimental ink painting by Sun Xun, Zheng Chongbin, Tai Xiangzhou, Zhang Jian-Jun, Bingyi, Peng Wei, and others.

Arts of China is curated by Susan L. Beningson, Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Wine Jar with Fish and Aquatic Plants. China. Yuan dynasty, 1279-1368. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue decoration, 111 5/16 x 13 3/4 in. (30.3 x 34.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, The William E. Hutchins Collection, Bequest of Augustus S. Hutchins, 52.87.1. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Arts of Japan Opens October 25, 2019  Arts of Asia and the Middle East, 2nd Floor

This fall, we unveil a new gallery for our Arts of Japan collection following a multiyear renovation. In this inaugural installation, seventy objects from our collection illustrate the sophistication of Japanese art-making technologies and explore the dialogue between tradition and innovation in Japan. Featuring masterworks of Buddhist sculpture, vivid Ukiyo-e prints, exquisite screen paintings, and cutting-edge contemporary ceramics, the gallery highlights two thousand years of artistic achievement. In acknowledgement of the cultural diversity within the region, the installation also includes highlights from our important collection of artifacts from the Ainu people of northern Japan, material that is rarely shown in an art museum setting

Arts of Japan is curated by Joan Cummins, Lisa and Bernard Selz Senior Curator, Asian Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Head of Guardian. Japan. Kamakura period (1185-1333), 13th century. Hinoki wood with polychrome, inlaid rock crystal eyes, filigree metal crown, 22 1/16 x 10 1/4 x 13 15/16 in. (56 x 26 x 35.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 86.21. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

One: Xu Bing October 25, 2019-April 26, 2020  Focus Gallery, 2nd Floor

Focusing on a major new gift to our world-renowned collection of Chinese art, One: Xu Bing highlights the painting Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman (2018). Created specifically for the Brooklyn Museum in consultation with curator Susan L. Beningson, this painting by one of China's most important living artists celebrates Xu Bing's close relationship with Brooklyn, where he lived in the 1990s and still has a studio today. Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman pays homage to Walt Whitman, the famous American poet, who served as an early librarian at the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library Association (our predecessor). His now-iconic poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is part of his collection Leaves of Grass and celebrates the idea that all of us are united in our shared human experience. 2019 marks Whitman's 200th birthday, and this exhibition includes material from our Archives to celebrate his relationship to the Museum.  

Xu Bing (b. 1955) developed Square Word Calligraphy as a new way of rendering the English language after he came to New York in the early 1990s. The hybrid calligraphy incorporates English words in rectangular arrangements that resemble Chinese characters. This interplay between form and language reflects Xu Bing's experience in New York, where he lived between two cultures.

One: Xu Bing is curated by Susan L. Beningson, Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Xu Bing (Chinese, born 1955). Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman, 2018. Ink on paper, 89 3/8 x 48 13/16 in. (227 x 124 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Xu Bing to the Brooklyn Museum in honor of his father, 2018.24a-b. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist)

Jacques-Louis David Meets Kehinde Wiley January 24-May 10, 2020  Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 4th Floor

Jacques-Louis David Meets Kehinde Wiley brings an iconic painting from our collection—Kehinde Wiley's Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps (2005)—into dialogue with its early nineteenth-century source painting, Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1800-1801). The two paintings, displayed together for the very first time, are on view in consecutive exhibitions at the Château de Malmaison from October 9, 2019 to January 6, 2020, and at the Brooklyn Museum from January 24 to May 10, 2020. The exhibition questions how ideas of race, masculinity, representation, power, heroics, and agency play out within the realm of portraiture. The Brooklyn presentation marks the first display of David's painting in New York, and Wiley helps highlight this momentous occasion by consulting on the exhibition design. Video also accompanies the project, incorporating Wiley's perspectives on how the Western canon, French portrait tradition, and legacies of colonialism influence his own practice. The exhibition represents an intimate conversation between two key artists of the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries and illuminates how images construct history, convey notions of power and leadership, and monumentalize figures in the form of aggrandizing icons.

The exhibition is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison and Bois-Préau. The Brooklyn presentation is curated by Lisa Small, Senior Curator, European Art, and Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005. Oil on canvas, 108 x 108 in. (274.3 x 274.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Partial gift of Suzi and Andrew Booke Cohen in memory of Ilene R. Booke and in honor of Arnold L. Lehman, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, and William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, 2015.53. © Kehinde Wiley. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825). Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Bonaparte franchissant le Grand-Saint-Bernard), 1801. Oil on canvas, 102 1/3 x 87 in. (261 x 221 cm). Collection of Château de Malmaison. (Photo: Courtesy RMN-GP)