Museum
A view from the the Museum
Past Installations
Zen Ink
GALLERY 2740 | EAST ASIAN BUDDHIST ART When Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the early 13th century from China, it radically transformed Japanese religious practice and visual culture. Rather than focusing on the study of written scripture, Zen...
Japan: Festivals and Seasonal Observances
GALLERY 2600 | EAST ASIAN ART Seasonal celebrations have been a popular subject in Japanese painting since the Heian period (794–1185). Elite cultural practices of Heian court society slowly filtered into the lives of the general populace, and by the Edo...
Arts of Ancient China, from the Bronze Age to the Golden Age
GALLERY 1600 | EARLY CHINESE ART The Zhou was a powerful state in the region of modern-day Shaanxi province in northern China. It came to power after overthrowing the area’s Shang rulers in the mid-11th century BCE. In an effort to establish its cultural...
Buddhism and Early East Asian Buddhist Art
GALLERY 1610 | BUDDHIST SCULPTURE In the late sixth century BCE, the northern Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama chose to abandon a life of worldly pleasure. He sought release from the suffering he believed inherent in samsara, the cycle of birth, death...
